Finding two witnesses is a simple task. Start with the whistle blowers and work your way out. Of course they will need to declassify data in order for us to have "proof" of their wrong doing, but that's a court issue not a Constitutional issue.

As to the NSA declaring war on America lets run down a list. If they have been planting malware on computers in the US they have waged war against their own country and destroyed property of US citizens. If they have spied on Americans against the 4th amendment they have declared war on America. If they have handed data on US citizens to foreign agencies (which they have done), and compromised the integrity and credibility of the government they have further declared war on the Republic. If they have caused undue harm to US citizens by violating their basic human rights they have declared war on America.

Their declaration of war is exactly what people claim "terrorists" have done to declare war on the US. The difference is really one of scale where the NSA is far worse. And before you make a silly statement, "terrorists" are not a country so it is not an official declaration of war being referred to in the "War on Terror" either.

Shows my age, but every time I see this acronym I see "VCL". and not VLC.

Well stated. If the judge told them to put it on an encrypted device where they didn't have the keys I'd feel much better.

You can't trust the encryption they're offering you for money, either. You're going to have to handle encryption on your end.

When workers become commodities, we call that slavery.

We have one, but need a court to hear the case and an attorney with enough power to get the case to court. The latter is the problem, not the former.

If Bill Gates is involved, I suspect some devious plot, though not necessarily Microsoft based. Actually, history would suggest that it's also Microsoft based, but he hasn't been in charge for awhile now, so perhaps he's got something else to push.

Every time I've checked one of his "benevolent" actions, it's turned out to be control motivated (or wealth motivated) so I'm now suspicious whenever his name appears.

I do know what the word means, do you know what both the NSA and FISA courts have been doing which compromises the integrity of our Democratic Republic form of Government? You do not see how smear campaigns based on illegally obtained information breaks the Democracy?

Yes they are treasonous, do some homework.

People are not mad about the NSA investigating Iran's centrifuges they are mad at how the NSA is abusing powers to spy on everyone in the world, and sell data which reduces liberty and democracy world wide. They are mad about FISA courts becoming a rubber stamp organization for this agency to abuse it's powers.

FWIW, axioms cannot be understood. They can only be postulated. If they are said to apply to reality, then they can also be observed to be invariably true. (Well, actually they can be observed to be true when you are noticing them, except in minor edge cases that can be explained away.)

What *can* be understood is how the axioms interact to describe an instance. (I'm being general here, so that I'm not *just* talking about math, but math is included.)

One useful way of talking about axioms is to use metaphors, some times historic. E.g., the equals sign is a symbol representing a balenced set of scales (as used in Babylon). In this system numbers are mapped to weights. So the scales remain balanced if you add or remove the same number from both pans of the scale. But this is an analogy, and there are places where it breaks down. (E.g., a square root has two valid answers...which doesn't fit the analogy, but does fit the axioms.)

Yet.

But automation is continuing at a rapid pace. Currently the designs are such that complex machines are often replaced rather than being repaired. (When is the last time you heard of a disk drive or a keyboard being repaired? Refridgerator?) And that's NOW, not when those currently in grade schoold have graduated from college/vocational school.

FWIW, I would have no idea what to recommend people learn...beyond certain basics: logic, critical thinking, how to evaluate reliability, etc.

A few decades ago I recommended that one should "be a garbage man", on the grounds that this would probably not be quickly automated. Well, automation hasn't advanced quite as quickly as I expected, but garbageman has remained a viable career path, if not a particularly attractive one. Part of the reason for this recommendation was that there aren't many openings in top management, and they are the ones who decide what jobs won't be automated, so that's the last job that will go. Today, though, I'm not so sure. Automated trucks are on the horizon, and that will eliminate huge swaths of jobs. And garbage collection has already been redesigned to increase the automation. (I'm not real inspired by the efficiency of the automation, but it has reduced the number of workers/truck and, perhaps, increased the speed of collection.) Further redesign is clearly needed, however...and by the time that happens, it's quite likely that the truct will drive itself.

Supermarket checkout clerk? RFID tags are already changing that. Currently there's no requirement that the cashier be more than very minimally literate. Self-checkout is spreading. How far will it spread?

Have you heard about the automated paralegal? It does searches through legal cases for useful references. This is work that used to be delegated to the entry lawyers of a firm. I don't know how widespread it is, but it's clearly something that is amenable to improvement.

Etc. I can't predict where automation will strike next, or how rapid will be its proliferation. But predicting what will be needed 20 years from now seems more than a bit risky. I might venture 5 years. At 10 years I'd be likely to overestimate the changes. At 20, however, I'd be likely to grossly underestimate the changes. That's enough time for something to be expected to come out of left field that will totally change things in unexpected ways. And education is supposed to prepare one for the long term.

FISA claims it's to hold for court purposes, but the NSA can still search this data while they hold it. So it suits at least one purpose which I'm sure we agree with, but should have come with a very specific instruction like "knock off the bullshit, you treasonous bastards!".

One of the main problems with the current system is micro-management by distant administrators. This isn't going to improve that. The tax system restructuring that was supposed to fund schools equally has, surprisingly, resulted in schools in poor areas subsidizing those in wealthier areas.

I don't have a good answer, as high mobility has basically destroyed most local communities (and by local I'm including neighborhoods, as well as small towns). But it's also had lots of good effects. The basic problem is the increased spread of inequality of income, and the abuses of power that it leads to. (If it didn't lead to abuse of power, I'd be more willing to listen to the "free market" people despite the fact that there has never, in all of history, been a free market larger than an extended family, and even that size is uncommon.)

Well, FWIW, I was against the reform that replaced basic arithmetic via memorization with set theory. I'm still opposed. Mind you, I hated that memorization, and I'm not really convinced that it's a good idea as calculators become more ubiqutous, but "Set Theory"? Logic I could see, though I doubt that the students would like it much more than they do memorization, but it's a basic tool. Set theory was dreamed up by people who wanted to reduce the observed world to a minimal number of beliefs. Useful, but hardly appropriate for elementary math. Particularly as it leads immediately to things like the secretary of the non-secretaries club, and the Spanish barber. Wait at least until high school. (Even there I think classical Geometry, algebra, and trig, with possible analytic geometry is a better sequence. Set theory should be mentioned occasionally for those who want to investigate it, but not be central.)

I haven't investigated was the Core Curriculum is about, but if Bill Gates is in favor of it, I'm skeptical without checking further. If he proposed it, I suspect malicious entrapment. He may sometimes have done more good than harm, but I don't know. His PR agents tend to whitewash his deeds, and ignore any commercial ties. Whenever I've actually looked carefully, it has seemed to me that he has done more harm than good. (Admittedly, I usually rely on presuming that current actions are similar to prior actions, and don't investigate.)

That's what it says on the cover. It also says on the cover that Ada has optional garbage collection...but somehow nobody implements it, and no program dares to rely on it.

When I was in school we often did not get even half way through to mandated text...I don't think optional extras will get much coverage..

Your version matches the summary on Wiki, however the evidence used in the trial was not simply related to the OS (except for whether or not Microsoft had lied about the browser being tied into the OS and required by the OS). Financial pressure may not have been exerted if not for the monopolization of the OS, but the antitrust case was not about the OS. I believe we are both correct, and your summary matches the Wiki.