And I guarantee he, personally, does none of that.

I hate it when someone actually explains things in an understandable way but does it from an AC post. Hard to give proper credit that way, ya know? I never knew about Trillian's shortcomings in that area since all the folks I talked to were on AIM and MSN at the time.

Weird, I remember using Trillian specifically because it supported a bunch of the incompatible IM protocols that the zillion different companies used back in the day.

How about this, tell me why you don't believe in Thor, Osiris, or Marduk. I will then apply those exact same reasons to your "god" and they will be equally valid. Considering the several thousand gods known to have been worshipped over the years the difference between us is negligable. I simply believe in one fewer gods than you.

Wrong. Weakness has nothing to do with it. In the states, most large companies anymore have what is called "PTO" Paid Time Off. If you can schedule in advance then you can use those PTO days as vacation, in theory, without penalty. Though they do of course get logged. If you get sick and have to call in last minute, you can usually still be paid from your PTO, but you get "attendance points" for doing so.

You also get "attendance points" if you are late or absent for any reason. After a certain number of "attendance points" you are fired. Regardless of where the points came from. Sick, late, no show. Doesn't matter. So even though you can be sick and still be paid, you will get fired for it in short order. Mind you most places I've worked the PTO accrues at apx .02 hours of PTO per hour worked so roughly an hour a week.

Also, ANY type of advancement or promotion tends to look at used PTO. The more PTO you've used the less likely you are to get raises, promotions, etc. That INCLUDES pre-approved vacation time.

This is from my own experience of course. But it was this way at American Express, Amazon, Go Daddy, AOL, 2Wire, and several other places I've worked.

Agreed, I've spent a lot of money with GoG over the past year. And most of the stuff works just fine off a USB stick so I can take my games with me!

I keep saying this over and over and over.

Real life is the biggest MMO out there, and strangely enough, I like to do things by myself sometimes. So why shouldn't I be allowed to do stuff by myself in MMO's occasionally. I've played far to many MMO's where you have to be in a group to wipe your ass for crying out loud.

Just because a game has multi-player in the title does NOT mean I should HAVE to be in a group to accomplish every little thing.

We have always been at war with West Eurasia...

We have never been at war with West Eurasia...

The share they are allowed to keep is minuscule. In Arizona it's apx 0.1% of sales tax collected. It's been a few years since I ran my business so I'm sure the numbers have changed a bit - sorry for a non-exact figure.

Because there is far more money to be siphoned off using scanners and spectrometers.

Well, anything is better than the 0% of the TSA. Yep - 0%. I've yet to see a single successful catch by the TSA.

Coming INTO the airport is way different than trying to go OUT of it. In the States it is actually illegal to go half-way through security then change your mind and leave. It's illegal to argue with the TSA. Your luggage will be taken from you into another room (out of sight) and then you are interrogated if your luggage has, at any point, been out of your sight. There have been multiple cases of TSA agents stealing stuff from luggage. Let's not even discuss broken colostomy bags, forced ingestion of breast milk, or pat downs of 5 year olds in body casts.

And here's the clincher. The US isn't #1 in *anything* right now except military spending and wealth concentration.

The labeling is not attempting to itemize what or how an item is modified, that'd be impossible given the obscurity of supply chains these days. A label that simple says, "This food has been genetically engineered", or simply "GMO" so I know what it is. No statements regarding the health, safety, or otherwise. I have the right to know.

Huge difference here. Grafting and cross breeding is NOT splicing bacteria or squid or what have you into a nucleus. Do you not see the difference?

Here's a racist example.
        White Guy + Black Girl = dark skinned kid. -- cross breeding - natural - normal
        White Guy + Load in test tube + genetecist = WTF? -- GMO - not natural