Well, that should work out well for them; I mean, it's not like Florida is filled with geriatrics who find everyone under the age of 50 to be suspect, right?

I know it's a joke, but it should be kept in mind that people who retire to FL generally don't stop in the northeast corner of the State. They go on south a ways....

And while he can legally put pressure on Google et al to remove it in Ireland, if someone has put it on any server outside of Ireland (which by now I'm sure they have out of sheer spite)

So, why do you seem to believe that Google's servers are in Ireland? Last I checked, Google had servers on every continent but Africa and Australia...

More sinisterly, this means that someone can shoot the president from farther away, for example, a range of 265 ft, without any training.

265 feet? That's 80 meters! The first time I ever fired a rifle, I was shooting at targets 100 meters away, because that was the shortest range set of targets on that particular range.

Putting a bullet into a human-sized target at 80 meters is gedunk....

It should be noted that whatsisbutthead who shot up Sandy Hook fired nearly 150 times to get his 26 kills.

At close range. Against helpless targets.

Where do you draw the line between what is and isn't a firearm?

Hmm, tough one. I tend to go with the line that if it isn't a personal weapon (as opposed to crew-served), it's not "arms" per the 2nd. In addition, I'd compare it to the standard infantry weapon of the time (which would leave out rocket launchers (till we start issuing rocket launchers as our standard infantry weapon, at least)). Note an exception for a Gyrojet, which is a rocket launcher, but shoots a bullet-sized rocket out of a pistol-shaped rocket launcher.

Does the 2nd Amendment allow (in your mind at least) a citizen to have a rocket launcher or a laser gun?

Soon as the Army starts issuing them as standard service rifles, sure. Well, realistically, they probably won't be available on the civilian market for 10-20 years after the Army starts issuing them, but if every grunt gets one, no reason I shouldn't be able to buy one (assuming I have the funds).

Note, by the by, that I don't expect the Army to EVER issue either as a standard service rifle. A rocket launcher is a wonderful way to say "here I am!!" to everyone in line of sight, so a very bad idea. A laser rifle, if it were appreciably better than a modern rifle would have an ammo pack that looked a lot like a nuclear reactor, or be a single-digit-shot weapon, neither of which the military has all that much use for.

What are you going to do when the technology of simple side arms develops to the point where you an take out a room full of people by pressing a trigger and letting you gun do all the aiming etc..?

Quit shooting for sport. There's no skill involved in pressing a button and letting the gun do the work.

Will it bother me that someone might commit a massacre with such a gun? Not especially - a soldier with a REAL assault rifle (as opposed to the EVVVIIIIIILLL "assault weapon") can do pretty much that now - that's what full-auto is all about.

Note, by the by, that you can do this with a bomb today (and have been able to do so with a bomb for about a century and a half (percussion cap meant no more slow fuses on your bombs)), so it's not like the world is going to be terribly more dangerous then than now.

Would genuinely like to hear from a pro gun NRA type.

Okay, you've heard from an NRA member.

Now, tell me how you'll feel about all those possibilities being true, but only the government gets to use them....

Is there any reason why you don't walk it?

Ahh, walking to work in DC in the summertime.

Almost as much fun as doing the same in New Orleans....

Auto makers would bully, threaten, and coheres the small business owners

Coheres?

So, the automakers would bully, threaten and be logically consistent the small business?

Or the automakers would bully, threaten make a whole the small businesses?

I suspect you meant "coerce"...

Gawd, I'm losing my grip on my html tags again. I need some booze...

Alas, still not allowed to have any....

Sure you can, you just have to remember to separate the algorithms for partisanship from race. Race isn't inherently tied to any given political party.

Forget Romney. When was the last time the black vote did NOT go Democratic?

Ditto hispanic vote?

If they could no longer gerrymander districts elsewhere, maybe they'd stop pretending they don't shoulder any responsibility for why blacks aren't voting for them.

You seem unaware that the VRA was a Democrat thing, not a Republican thing. Part of Johnson's Great Society...

Note, by the by, that the VRA does a lot of useful things - outlawing literacy tests for voting was a good enough reason by itself to pass the bill. But the "your districting has to be approved by a Federal Court till the end of time" was a bit beyond the pale....

You're obviously unaware of what, exactly, the Voting Rights Act is...

Hint: no Democrat, EVER, will vote for its repeal. If for no other reason than that the gerrymandering by the VRA represents guaranteed Dem votes.

Do note that not everyone who is offered a bribe actually does what you bribed him/her to do.

Especially politicians, many of whom are notorious for taking money from anyone at all, and voting in fvour of the last guy to "advise" him/her on the subject.

It's never been fair to ask local business to pay the tax and refuse to require it of internet businesses.

So, you think that, say, a French business should have to collect sales tax on behalf of the part of the government of the part of the Parish I live in?

Interesting theory, that.

The really big disparities in contributions, interestingly enough, came from the various Unions, especially public worker unions - they tended to come down on the "we want this new tax" by very large percentages (90% for, 10% against, as an example - most weren't quite that extreme, some were rather more extreme).

Hmm, $7 million or so just from governments, government employees, and assorted government employee unions.

That alone is 5x as much as the other side spent.

$28 million from real estate interests. 20x as much as the other side spent.

$5 million from publishers of books/periodicals/magazines - not sure why this matters to them, since they get the same return selling a book online as in a B&M store.

Local businesses and trade associations seem to pretty much cover the rest.

Though why veterinarians have any interest in the subject one way or another, I haven't a clue - not like you're going to mail your pet to New Hampshire to get his shots....

Defining a countrywide party agnostic algorithm for automatically creating districts

Can you say "Voting Rights Act"?

Sure you can...

As long as the Voting Rights Act is law, there are a great many districts (the Old South, a couple in New York, others scattered about the country) that CANNOT be changed to be "Party agnostic" without approval of the Federal Courts (effectively, the Supreme Court, since any such change WILL be appealed all the way to the Supremes).