The cell phone industry (part of telecom) is currently in the middle of an earthquake, and it is being driven by two extremely capitalistic companies: Apple and Google. It will get even better when deregulated spectrum starts coming into play. The FCC has hindered advancement in cell communications with many of its rules, but a few regulations (like billing transparency) have been helpful. Finding the proper balance between anarchy and central planning is the key.

There are some industries that must be regulated more than others, like financial services, but most of the regulations needed are "sunshine" type laws. Information is an excellent disinfectant!

Electricity is an industry that needs more care and feeding than others, largely because of the rural problem. Nobody wants to risk many millions of dollars to bring service to the middle of nowhere. That is a job, like rural road-building, that almost certainly needs public money involved. However, there are many large markets around the country that would benefit immensely from some energy entrepreneurship.

Why not leave the current public-private companies in place, but stop barring private entities from attempting to compete with them? That way rural areas can continue to be serviced, but the booming areas can benefit from free-market innovation?

I assume you don't live in the US. Our government isn't very popular at present. Sunshine is being cautiously welcomed, although the release of military information spooks a lot of us.

Corporations don't get money just for existing and being evil. They get it from customers. Now, unless they have a monopoly, they must be doing something to attract those customers. Perhaps you are in a minority that doesn't want to be a customer?

But the NYT does speak far louder than other entities. It might as well be donating to the candidate when it provides them free services.

I cannot imagine how a playground analogy can be applied here. There is no playground parallel to mass media that I can think of./quote

I've never seen an officer park in a residential driveway that wasn't his. There's probably a reason behind it.

A better idea would be to remove it, give it an AC power source, and just let it sit there, in your driveway. I considered the idea of placing it on some other random (or not-so-random) vehicle, but that would lead to them doing something more sophisticated that you might not be able to detect. Simply building it a nice little permanent housing w/ power should stall them for a while.

There are some even better ideas below: call the bomb squad and news agencies on it, or give it to your lawyer.

Wow, that reporter has a bit of bias there, doesn't he?

That's not the only industry this is destroying: http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/14/smallbusiness/toy_law_threatens_small_companies.smb/index.htm
Old-fashioned toymakers cannot afford lead testing for handmade items. I'm nauseated by Congress making up a new something-or-other every time we have a new scare. The lead scare is over, but the costly boards are still here, doing stupid stuff like this.

Exactly. I can count the number of times I've said, "damn," out loud, and I've never used an F-bomb. The result is that if I even say, "crap," people take notice. This approach also works very well with Victorian insults. There's a quote I like:

I find that the cleaner your everyday language, the greater the effect you can produce when you need it. Calling someone a blithering idiot is far more effective than a common swear word that you hear every 5 minutes in public.

No, if this story is true at all, it is because of customs, not TSA-style goons. If you fly from point A to point B in the USA on your private jet, you drive your car out to the plane and take whatever you want aboard. The complication in this story is that it was international travel, meaning customs had to inspect everything for export laws. Perhaps he was required to go through general security, because, say, customs was behind the secure area or something.

How long before a hacker mods a cell phone transmitter to jam cell phone frequencies? How long before a hacker modifies a GPS, FM Radio, Bluetooth transmitter, or anything else to jam X frequency? Jammers are easy, cheap, and widely available. However, the world has not come to a halt yet. Hey, even my WRT54G has the ability to transmit on the wrong channels just by changing an option in the web console.

Thank you for a civilised, open-minded opinion. I don't agree with all you said, but I appreciate your actually thinking.

Why not not make extra babiez? I personally know a couple that requested that. The doctor thought it was unusual, but they had him do it anyway. Now their child will be born soon and they have a clean conscience.

So you're saying blacks are attracted to oddballs? Racist. ;)

Now, the percentage of blacks in Tea Party rallies is roughly the same as in the greater population (7-11% IIRC). That means that it is a mainstream movement, not a racist one.

It also makes it really hard for the sleeper agents to know when they're being activated.