What bothers me about LinkedIn is the constant goddamn spam...uh, I mean emails telling me my "limited time offer" for premium membership so I can unlock all the nifty features is almost up.

Beer busts, beer blasts, keggers, stein hoists, AA meetings, beer night. It's wonderful, Marge. I've never felt so accepted in all my life. These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined.

Mmmmm, beeeer....

I commissioned my own study that says Microsoft is full of shit. I'm not releasing the study itself or the details of our methodology. But trust me on this, it's true.

If it really is, why not move to a host that isn't vulnerable.

No such thing. The closest thing to invulnerable is The Tick, and even he's only nigh invulnerable.

The Washington Post reports that the U.S. birthrate is at its lowest since 1920, the earliest year with reliable records.

Except for Hawaii. Their earliest year with reliable records was 1962 apparently.

Note to self: Proof read you fucking moron.

You have moved into a dark place.
It is pitch dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

then Red, White, Black, Silver, Gold, Platinum, etc.

Gotta catch 'em all!

No argument here on that. It's just as easy for Democrats to abuse absentee voting. It might be difficult for you to show up at a polling place and vote twice under different names. Not saying it's impossible. Just saying the only documented cases of in person voter fraud occurring amount to less than a tenth of a percent of votes and closer to a hundredth of a percent. It's not a big problem.

But you could easily sign and request absentee forms for those dead grandparents and vote on their behalf. Democrats are just as likely to cheat that way as Republicans are. Probably you got the "just leave it alone" response from somebody who just is a lazy shit who doesn't feel like working. (Kind of like me on /. today instead of focusing on my current project like I should.)

As for Black Panthers showing up here and there outside polling places ... I haven't heard anything about that except what you just wrote. Are they going to predominantly rich white neighborhoods and intimidating people? Because I get the feeling poor inner city mostly black neighborhoods would ignore them. I could be wrong. Either way, yes voter intimidation is wrong and I think illegal. Which is why they pulled down those anonymous billboards in poor mostly black neighborhoods with ominous "VOTER FRAUD IS A FELONY" messages playing on the fears of people who aren't sure they have the proper ID and might get in trouble trying to vote without it so they'll just stay home even though they have every right to go vote and may even have an acceptable form of ID without knowing it.

That's great in landslides because it negates the fraud. But it also means absentee vote fraud has even more potential to decide close races.

BTW, not directed at you but I think it's funny I got modded "Troll" for stating fact.

Mod: Hey, I don't like the way you pointed out the truth! What a dick! Have a downmod!
Me: LOL

Here's even more fuel to add to the "flamebait/troll" modders: You know why Republicans haven't called for any regulations or anything to fix the potential for absentee voter fraud? Because the #1 largest group who votes absentee are military personnel, of whom a large majority vote Republican. Don't want to make voting for your core constituency any harder, now do you? Only on the poor, elderly, and student populations...you know...the ones who typically vote Democrat.

But...shhhh...it's not partisan. No. Not at all. (Nudge nudge wink wink saynomore...)

It's unfortunately all too easy.

1. Request absentee ballot
2. Receive absentee ballot
3. Sign absentee ballot
4. Receive payment from buyer
5. Hand over absentee ballot to buyer
6. Walk away while they fill it out however they like and mail it in for you

IMHO, this is the easiest, simplest, and most commonly abused form of voter fraud. Yet none of the supposed "voter fraud" measures proposed predominantly by Republicans address this at all. It's all a smoke screen for suppressing voters that typically lean Democrat.

"Preventing Democratic Votes" under the guise of "Preventing Voter Fraud"

By giving us cheap and open devices, Google is making sure it's in control -- not the carriers. That's better for the consumers, but it's also better for Google.

That's better for the consumers for now. But in the long run there's no more reason to trust Google than the telephone companies where power is currently concentrated. Once all the power is in Google's hands (if they get their way) it's not so good for consumers anymore.

I was going to down-mod you as troll or flamebait but fuck it...I'll respond instead. I'll probably regret it later. I was a Wii early adopter. Had it reserved ahead of schedule and skipped the lines to just walk in and pick it up on day one. We have probably 50 games for it. Up to that point, I'd never bought a current gen console. I've never invested so much money in a console platform. I bought a PS1 when the PS2 came out. But when the Wii was coming out, I couldn't wait. Because it was that interesting. It was a game changer. Now you've got kinect and move and you can see how this thing forced Sony and Microsoft to innovate.

And our Wii gets played almost daily. Between my kids, the wife, and me, it gets plenty of use. Still.

So you think the Wii sucks. You and your XBOX/PS3 brethren, most likely. But "sucks" isn't an objective measure, is it? It doesn't suck...for me and my family and our friends and their families because I know a lot of them that still play.

But I have ZERO interest in the Wii U. Not because it sucks. But because...well, why should I care? It's a Wii with a better CPU & GPU and a tablet controller. Okay. But people who bought the Wii in the first place aren't graphics snobs. Oh, wait. Many of them must be, right? Because 80 million people have dust covered Wiis that they don't play with any more. What a ridiculous statement. If that were even remotely true, the market for new & used Wii games would be nonexistent. Any new game released (if there were any) would be sold for $1.99. And used games would sell for a nickel. But last time I walked through a local Game Stop there were still rows and rows of shelves with new & used Wii games still selling for typical prices. Because it's still a viable market. Because people still use their Wiis.

But again, what does the Wii U offer? I don't care about super awesome triangle counts and NOW WITH EVEN MORE PIXEL SHADERS!!! Wooh, who gives a fuck?! People who just want to look at a screen and think, "sweet jesus that's a beautiful looking game." Guess what? That's what my gaming PC is for. It can drive higher than 1080p resolutions and do multi-monitor gaming and makes the power of the XBOX/PS3 look exactly like they are: years old and obsolete.

Nintendo forgot their market. The new controller is the *only* remarkable feature of the Wii U. And it's not that big of a deal, really. Sorry to say it, but there's just nothing revolutionary about it. It's an evolutionary product. It's a "Version 2.0" that should be a point release if we are honest about it. And it gets exactly the hype it deserves...which is very little.

After Obama wins the election, the most likely terrorist threat will come from these areas. They're just thinking...Forward.

Saudi Arabia can go fuck itself.

You have NO RIGHT to NOT be offended.