You don't know what you are talking about. Lets go through it.

If you are referring to Iraq, that is pretty much pure rubbish. Iraq has been a functioning if troubled democracy since soverignty was restored to its government. There have been a number of elections, and the head of government has changed peacefully. Iraq still controls the majority of its territory, and the region controlled by ISIS is an extention of the territory it controls in Syria. ISIS is not all that different from the Taliban and al Qaida, and it is in essence an offshoot of al Qaida. Al Qaida was active in the 1990s, so your claim there is rubbish as well. The people of Iraq are far better off than they were under Saddam. You're piling rubbish to a whole new level.

Yet more rubbish. The proper members of Congress were briefed regarding enhanced interrogation, and legally those techniques did not constitute torture despite your opinion. American citizens that take up arms with the enemy to make war on the United States can be killed like any other combatant. Maybe you could examine all the trials and warrant serving that occurred on US Civil War battlefields. Hint: that didn't happen. Confederate soldiers were shot down without warrant, arrest, trail, or conviction. That's because it's war, not an action of the criminal justice system. Your confusion on this point results in more rubbish.

No "boots on the ground," .... you mean like the 170,000 soldiers that were in Iraq, and around 100,000 in Afghanistan? You're confused again.

Unfortuantely you've got it wrong again. The Congress has passed multple laws authorizing NSA activity, and the President has his own Article II powers that don't rely on Congress. The NSA's actions have been authorized, they apparently are within the limits of the Constitution. Since there have been several elections during this period it would seem that democracy in the US continues unimpaired. So, in short, more rubbish.

Just over a week ago the Russian ambassador to Denmark threatened Denmark with nuclear weapons. Please find me a comparable example of the US making a similar open threat involving nuclear weaopns anytime recent.

Russia threatens to aim nuclear missiles at Denmark ships if it joins NATO shield

The government is not writing checks out of the general fund to pay people to drill for oil.

So, the trillions of taxpayer dollars we've spent on wars to protect energy interests just don't count? The hundreds of thousands of lives that were spent in these wars, counting the civilian casualities?

You might have an answer to that question if you weren't one of the "people who don't really understand this stuff".

And you're worried about 30% of the cost of solar panels. You're a special kind of person, you are.

Is there any other mainstream technology that repeatedly makes outlandish claims, and just shrugs it off as if it never happen when those claims don't deliver, and yet gets massive taxpayer-sponsored support?

Coal, hydraulic fracturing, the pharmaceutical industry. The defense industry.

Shall I go on?

I think it is the government subsidy part that upsets so many.

But every single form of energy is subsidized by the government. So why are we singling out solar again?

Do you feel the same way about nuclear?

... it's not Christmas time.

I learned that I can learn a lot faster on my own. Maybe not everyone can, but after suffering through classes with people that seemed to not be able to get basic concepts in physics and calculus, I realized that I could buy the text books and teach myself at a much faster rate. And since the computer lab was open to the public, I had full use of the facilities to do the homework assignments.

What I hope happens is that those that need college to learn continue to have the opportunity to go. And the smart people that don't need it will stop having to justify themselves simply because they don't have a piece of paper that says they had to spend a lot of money to learn something because they weren't able to do it themselves.

I'd much rather hire self-motivated people who can learn new things by themselves. They are much quicker to adapt to changing technology than someone that had to go to school to learn.

Is there any other technology, besides renewable energy, that makes certain Slashdot readers so darn mad? It's like they would prefer that it just didn't exist.

If you say Apple has 13% of the personal computer market, they're popping corks and doing the peepee dance. If you say a newer technology, solar energy, has reached 5%, while facing enormous geo-political resistance and the enmity of the most powerful corporations in the world, it actually pisses you off for some reason.

I'm curious. What is it about solar energy that spurs such surprising anger among this segment of Slashdot readers? What did solar energy do to you?

Nothing. The NSA exists because nations like Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union existed, China, Russia, and North Korea still publicly threaten the US and other nations with nuclear weapons (and Iran hoping to join the club), and terrorist groups exist. If you think NSA exists because of "dishonest" politicains in the US you competely misunderstand the issues.

Although you are quit bright, at times you express some really bad ideas. This is one of them. Politicians are accountable to their constituents, and ordinary law enforcement will do fine, thank you. Keeping the military and intelligence agencies apolitical in a democracy is a good thing unless you have a taste for coups.

Let's be very clear that the real situation is that you wish that much of what NSA does is illegal and unconstituional. Unfortunately the law, courts, and Congress are against you. Your wish is just that, a wish, and it isn't coming true any time soon.

So you openly advocate having the national intelligence agencies spy on politicians to find incriminating evidence that makes them vulnerable, but you disparage the Stasi? Hmmmmm......

I have watched a bunch of Stanford lectures and they are a guy at the back of the class with a camera. I have taken a coursera course on finance, cryptograpy, astronomy, mathematical thinking, and gamification and they were all basically a good webcam with no camera operator.

The great courses company does seem to have some pretty good production where they have a camera man, and at least one animator. The lighting is pretty good and I suspect that there is lots of editing. But those might be some of the highest production quality courses out there. MathTutorDVD which is pretty good is a guy with a whiteboard.

I suspect that $100,000 is a BS number that comes either from extreme government waste or it is to generate funding that will allow for extreme government waste.

Ah yes, the "NSA" scene from Good Will Hunting. Overall it is a great movie, but that scene in nothing but polemic. The narrative is based on rubbish that most anyone with critical thinking skills should be able to identify.

You find that "persuasive," somehow, do you?

Not surprised I guess, you apparently think the NSA wants to be "popular." Hey guys! Who is the most popular secret agency!! That kind of defeats the purpose of being "secret" doesn't it?