Not only that...it is bad enough to have to dodge the room-temperature IQs blasting along the road in 2d. Imagine the joys of having to watch for burning debris falling from the sky too! There is a reason that it is not easy to get a pilot's license...and it is not just because the government gets a chunk of funds from the fees.

Greetings and Salutations...
          Hum, I take it you mean the Constitution of the U.S.? If so...exactly what clauses from this would you erase? And...more importantly, how would you justify your decision?
            To put it simply enough that it is clear (I hope)...the Constitution is vital to the structure of the country and its government because it clearly defines and limits the powers of the Federal Government has over its citizens. If you think today's losses of freedom are bad, you should consider what it would be like without the Constitution and its defenders to at least TRY to keep it in check.
          If, though, you mean something else, then, please, enlighten me about these laws, and, again, both why they are bad and why you would eliminate them.
          as for the educational level of the founding fathers of the country....I suspect that, in a general sense, their level of education would be the equal to, or possibly superior to, the state of education in America today. They might not have known about computers and software and such, but I would not be surprised to find that many of them were flexible enough of mind that they could pick it up quickly.
          pleasant dreams
            dave mundt

Greetings and Salutations.
          I suspect that almost all the people who call for such an open book are quite young and likely far too innocent. Already though, there are tales floating around the net about how facebook postings, and, other social site postings that have come back to bite the poster on the ass, causing them to not get jobs, or lose jobs, or screw up relationships. Beyond that how can anyone feel comfortable with someone staring over their shoulder all the time. Up to recently, the only people that had that lack of privacy were high-security prisoners...
          Pleasant dreams
          xmundt
 

I am impressed...something from Ayn Rand that I can actually agree with. i suppose that this is an example of how a lotus blossom can grow from a river of feces.
Not that I am unimpressed by her writings...or ANY THING like that
pleasant dreams
xvart

Greetings and salutations.....
          My first reaction is "well, why are they going to college in the first place??" For much of their existence, colleges existed to provide a safe haven for the free flow of ideas and alternative theories. Many times, I, and a number of other students, would end up sitting around a table discussing a new theory in computer science, or, cosmology, or political science. We debated topics such as the morality of War (When I was in college, the Vietnam War was in full swing, so it was a topic near and dear to those of us that were classed 1A, and, had selection numbers in the single and double digits), and what America's place in the world should be. There was always a collection of quite divergent views at the table, and more often than not, little or no agreement. However, we all listened to the arguments of the other person, debated points about them, and thought about their point of view. The only folks that were not welcome were the extremists who would degenerate into screaming matches and insist that it was "their way or the highway".
          WHile the education we received from the faculty was important, even there, some of the most important lessons learned came not from the lectures, but, the discussion in class and in meetings with the professor, where disagreements about the interpretation of some facts were expected, and, debated when they arose.
          From a personal example, when I was taking some history classes ranging from the colonization of America and the spread Westward, to the massive social upheaval of the early 1900s in Russia, I ran into problems with my professors over my analysis of the events. Why? Well, at the time most of them held onto the concept of "manifest destiny" - the divine right of Americans to roll across the middle and Western united stats, crushing the native population under them, or, of the people to rise up and overthrow their government. I, however, was more a follower of "Economic Determanism" - holding that the best way to explain large scale actions of society was to follow the money. I could, without too much trouble, find what I felt to be an obvious and strong economic pressure that caused these changes in society. Needless to say, my papers discussing social trends were not received well by the professors. In order to get even an adequate grade, I had to provide at least twice the foundation for my arguments that other students (who DID toe the party line) had to include. Even in the best case, though, my papers were, typically, marked down by a half to full grade simply because I disagreed with their point of view. However, I did not get into a huff and walk out of class, or boycott anything. Rather, I worked twice as hard to justify my point of view, and, to ensure that my arguments were clear and well supported. I did pass the classes, but only just, but, the lessons I learned there both about life in general, and, the nitty-gritty of organizing supporting points for a given argument were a valuable addition to my life and remain so today, some 30 years later.
          regards
          dave mundt

Greetings and Salutations.
          FWIIW, Pioneer makes a really slick product, called the "AVIC" which addresses pretty much all these complaints. It slots into the dash and replaces the radio, and, includes a nice, large GPS screen that pops out, and also provides sophisticated but easy to use controls for video and audio components. It is not cheap at close to $1000.00 but the GPS unit in it works quite well and is accurate.
          Regards
          Dave Mundt

Greetings and Salutations....
          Some good points here. I would give it a try, actually, if for no other reason, to see if cultured meat has a different texture. Also, what about fat content? It seems to me that this would be pure protein, which could make it great for use in sausages, etc.
          Regards
          dave mundt

Greetings and Salutations....
          Ageism has been, and continues to be, a serious problem in the IT profession. It does not apply to just coders either, as it seems that being over the age of 50 is a kiss of death for system administrators, DBAs, analysts, etc. I suspect that the issues that control this are (in no particular order)
          1) Folks doing the hiring assume that anyone over the age of 50 is so stuck in their rut that they are out of touch with the newer technologies. Actually the cut off age here seems to be closer to 30....
          2) The younger a hire is the cheaper they will be for the company. Most companies would rather pay a kid $40K a year and not worry about the fact that it might take him a week to do what a $100K a year hire could do in a day or even a few hours.
          3) Again, because of the incorrect perception that IT people are an expense rather than an asset, HR hires the kid who knows how to do ONE thing, instead of the older, more experienced person that knows how to do a dozen things, and can likely apply that knowledge to find a way to make the company more efficient, using the excuse that the older hire is going to be "too expensive".
          I will agree that, in the short term, the older hire requires a larger check...but in the long term, is likely to more than pay that back with the increases in efficiency and the savings he or she can bring to the company. This makes no difference, though, because these days, short-term profit is the only goal that companies can look for.
            4) most management knows that the older hire is going to be more of a pain for them, because experience brings understanding of exactly how poorly most management runs things, and, a considerably lower tolerance for that sort of nonsense. The "fresh face" just out of school is willing to put up with a lot more crap that we, with that experience, are not. The kid actually believes management's vague, hand-waving promises of great rewards later on for 80 plus hours of work now!

Greetings and salutations....
          I do not know that I anthropomorphise the USA enough so that in my own head I hear it as being male or female. However, at least these days, I do look upon it as the world's largest kindergarten, considering the childish way that so many "adults" act.

          As for for the name of the security theatre, while I think it is a cute idea to change their emblem/patch to a "HS" logo, I suspect it would be simpler and more accurate to change its name to "Safety and Security". That way, the patch could be a simple and alliterative "SS". That should not be a problem should it???? While there are quite a few good folks in the organization, the overall tactics and goals of the bureaucracy are scarily close to that of the OTHER "SS".
          For what it is worth, there is precedent for this. At the University of Tennessee, the campus cops had the official title of "Safety and security". However, whoever ran it was smart enough that their patches spelled it out - no lightning shaped pairs of letters there. However, they did wear brown uniforms (which was an unfortunate choice) and, a fair number of them were so taken up with their "power" that they were bad for lording it over the students.
          regards
          dave

Greetings and Salutations.....
          A couple of thoughts here. First off, people mature at different rates. Society has picked arbitrary, chronological points in life to define what phase of that maturing process a given person is at. With luck, those magical dates are generated by observing the population as a whole, and, picking a time that covers 85%-90% or more of the population. However, because it is a spectrum, there are some people who have an amazing level of maturity at the age of 12, and some who are still adolescent at the age of 30. We have to look at the actions and attitudes of each individual to truly know how mature they are. That having been said...recent studies, using MRI and other scanning technologies have discovered that there IS a difference between the wiring of an adult brain and a teen age brain... Also, having interacted with quite a number of youth and young adults in my life, I have seen that difference high-lighted by the younger brains being willing to take greater risks, either because of a limited ability to model consequences, or a stronger spirit of adventure, than a fully mature brain. This argument would not be as likely if she had been scanned and the structure of her brain analyzed. The simple answer is that, at the time, she was 16, and, therefore generally looked up as a child by the law. Elsewhere in this lengthy thread, the point is made that society does try younger folks as adults, if the crime is "bad enough". I would submit that the driving force there has nothing to do with the person on trial, or their actual maturity and understanding, but, rather has almost everything to do with the political pressures put upon the prosecutors by the public.
          Secondly...I finally did watch the entire video, and, it is hardly shocking or unusual (sadly enough), but it sure looks like the event went well beyond discipline and descended into abuse. It also appears from various data sources that the judge had a long history of abusing the women in his family, so, this is hardly a surprising result.I was spanked a few times when I was growing up, because I never have been good at dealing with the strictures and rules of society. In all cases, my father limited the paddling to a few strokes and made it a point to never administer the punishment if he was angry. He also took time to make it very clear WHY I was being spanked. As for why the young lady published the video - I question whether it was for blackmail purposes, although even if it was, that does not mitigate the nature of the problem. I did see part of an interview with her where she categorically denied that blackmail was involved. My take on it is that she is trying to get the baggage that this and other abuse left with her, and, the only way to do it is to talk about it. I suspect that this sort of situation was the "elephant in the living room" that everyone knew they must not talk about. The usual result of such denial is a growth of darkness in the victim that will eventually destroy them, if it is not dealt with.
          The folks in this thread that have casually dismissed her chronic MD show a sad lack of education in the area. The problem with diseases like that is that one tends to look perfectly normal for much of the time. However, beyond the surface, there is pain, weakness and often some overwhelming, negative, emotional pressures that suck one's energies. I would say to those folks dismissing the illness - pray to whatever God you follow that you are never struck down with such a condition.
          Finally, it would be interesting to look at the judge's record and see how he handles similar family situations. It would be the height of hypocrisy for him to come down hard on alleged abusers with this kind of situation. In any case, while it sounds like the family is too broken to be repaired, if there is a sincere interest in it, I hope they agree to (and stick to) a schedule of work with a family councilor who may be able to help them work out the festering rot that has caused this.