I've crossed out and initialed things in the employment contracts several times in the past. Most noticably, the clause that says I won't work in the field for x years after leaving them. It's not enforceable in the state of California so has no business being in the contract. I've never had a problem doing this. I also refuse to let them do a credit check. My personal finances are none of their business. Only one time did this become an issue. The company insisted they needed to do the credit check and it was a condition of employment. At this point I told them I was no longer interested in working for them and that I would be reporting them to the labor board.

If someone wanted a plan to completely destroy the US economy, they could save time by simply adopting the Kyoto protocols. Not only would it have crippled us, it gave the number one polluter in the world, China, a complete pass. No wonder the senate voted almost unaminously against it.

We have some of the strictest environmental laws in the world. China, on the other hand, seems to be in a contest to see how quickly they can destroy the planet.

Voting the same people in year after year is even more idiotic.

Since the 2008 election, 2.5 million voters have quit the two major parties and gone to third parties or have become independent. People have finally figured out they have been sold a lie when told they MUST vote for a democrat or a republican. Keep drinking your koolaid. I'll be voting my conscious.

You have the mistaken belief that there are only two choices, democrat or republican. There are other parties. I won't vote for anyone in the two main parties ever again. They stopped representing us decades ago. Voting for the lessor of two evils is still voting for evil. Vote third party -- any third party.

It's uniformed morons like you who consistently vote in the same crooks election after election that got us in this mess in the first place.

Your suggestion isn't reasonable and would punish the patent holder.

I invent a widget and get a patent. It's a very cool widget and has the potential to make some serious bank, but making it in quantity will require some specialized manufacturing capabilities. While I'm shopping around for backers, company Slime Inc starts making and selling my widget without my permission. Unfortunately, I don't have the finances needed to take them in court. However, Big Corp, Inc offers to license the widget and deal with the lawsuits if they get a five year exclusive. The licensing fee they will pay me are quite reasonable so we both win. Except under your rule, I can't do it since I can't give preferential licensing to any company. Big Corp won't do it without the exclusive because of the cost of the lawsuit they must initiate. Instead, they'll just sit it out for a year and watch my patent get revoked for failing to defend the license. Then they'll start making the widget without having to pay me a dime. In the end, Slime, Inc and Big Corp, Inc both get to make my widget and I get nothing. Good plan you have there.

Jersey Show is still on the air and Firefly was canceled in the middle of the first season.

The state of California is populated with a bunch of morons who keep trying to vote themselves unicorns and rainbows and the idiots in Sacramento don't have the balls to actually do their jobs so the budget never gets balanced and the taxes keep going up. California has the highest overall taxes in the entire country. One of the highest state income taxes (about 9%), one of the highest sales taxes (about 8%), one of the highest corporate taxes (about 9%), and excessive fees for just about everything. Because so much money is predestined for someone's pet project (because of stupid ballot initiatives), there will NEVER be enough money to pay for the necessities. The train is just par for the course. The initial track will connect two places that no one in their right mind ever wants to go to, and the remainder will probably not be built in our lifetime.

I was born and raised in California. I'm still here because I'm a tech worker and this is where most of the tech jobs are concentrated. I've watched my state get shoved into the waste bucket by the people who live here and am sick of this shit. For years I've lived by a simple rule when it comes to the ballot. I vote no for anything that forcibly allocates money. No exceptions. I also vote no on all bond measures as I do not believe it is moral to pass the big fucking bill to our children. I also vote no on all tax increases because we're already paying too much (see above).

And grinding is damn annoying to casual players such as myself. I would like to go after the lich king, but my gear sucks. Even at the max level of 85, I get my ass handed to me. In the group I'm usually the first to die because of my gear (being a mage doesn't help, either). I do not want to run through the same dungeons a hundred times hoping for an epic drop that might give me a slight improvement in stats because that is boring. I will say, however, that WoW's reliance on gear is a whole lot better than Diablo 2, where gear was the only thing that mattered.

I spent a year at Google as a contractor and was considered by many to be a raving right-wing fundie nut job -- because my politics are rather middle of the road independent. The definition of "evil" for the flaming liberals at Google is "anything that isn't my belief", with the exception that Google could do no wrong.