Here in Scotland we have Holyrood, who defer to Westminster for certain issues, who defer to the EU on top of that.

I'm not from Scotland or even UK, but if I were a Scot I'd vote for independence on the grounds of getting that intermediate Westminster layer out of the game; the presence of that only makes the UK government (the Tories for now...) present the de facto English opinion in Council of Ministers and in European Council as the opinion of the whole UK. If you'd become independence you'd get your own government to represent you in those institutions. Also, smaller countries get proportionally more MEP seats, so you'd also gain something in that.

And since this would all happen inside the EU, your access to UK markets next door wouldn't really be hindered at all. And you could still stay in the Common Travel Area as the Irish do, so the border wouldn't disturb you in practice. Heck, you could probably even make a deal to have a monetary union with the stub UK, if you'd prefer to stick with the Pound over the Euro. (I understand that right now the prospect of Eurozone membership doesn't sound all that great, although I personally think that the rumours of the future breakup of the Eurozone are greatly exaggerated.)

I'll encrypt my sticks as soon as somebody makes an encryption software that works seamlessly in Windows AND Mac OS X AND Linux, and is easy to install and use. Currently, the only one that comes even close is Truecrypt, but due to its stupid vanity licence it isn't a real option on Linux, as it is not included in repos and as such isn't easy to install.

LUKS can work on Windows (with FreeOTFE) but not on OS X, so that isn't an option, either.

I was just thinking that, from Dutch govenment's point of view, OpenVPN must be extraordinary awesome while used in combination with Diginotar-signed certs!

(Sorry, I just couldn't resist.)

Don't think so; this brings mrs. Vandergilt to my mind.

WTF? Driving is a privilege, not a right, not even in the US. You'll need a licence for it, and in addition you'll choose to accept certain rules and regulations by choosing to drive.

In any sensible jurisdiction, if you choose to drive, you'll accept you could be stopped and breathtested at any time and if you refuse, you'll be, and you should be, automatically subject to a blood test.

If you don't like the breathalysing, then don't drive. As simply as that. This has nothing to do with being a police state.

Efficient my arse: http://www.porsche.com/international/models/cayenne/cayenne/featuresandspecs/

An efficient petrol-run 4WD car can run with less than 8 l/100 km. If it's diesel, it can run with 5 l/100 km.

If it's just 2WD, then cut off additional 1.5-2 liters per 100 km.

Well, the GP is obviously an American. The CR-V is probably about the tiniest car permitted by federal law. :P

Shit. “Nokia PC” should have been “Nokia PC Suite”. But anyway.

Funny thing here is that F-Secure's Client Security does the same; it automatically installs an extension to Firefox that adds a toolbar reporting whether a particular site is safe.

OK, you can avoid that by choosing custom install and not installing the “browsing protection”, and even if installed you can turn it off from their GUI, but the installer does not explicitly tell you that it will install a Firefox extension.

(And yeah, others too. At least Skype and Nokia PC both do this.)

...in addition to APT, general hackability and real qwerty for fast typing.

It has resistive touchscreen and thus works well in -10 C, or so, when the gloves are not particularly thick.

Not that well in -25 C though, as using thick mittens tends to make touch somewhat imprecise. ;) But at least I can use thinner gloves underneath them so that I won't have to take them completely off.