The assertion that "Facebook is a man in the middle attack" is utter bullshit. an "attack" would imply that Facebook is doing something that the user does not want to do.

The reality is that facebook/myspace/google+ et al. is a service in which the user willingly sends their information to them, and then they happen to share such information with some connections.

People do that willingly, people willingly sign up to facebook and send such information to facebook. The people who do not want to share information with facebook do not do it.

And yet, Americans still prefer to buy at Walmart, buy tech made by Foxconn because it is cheaper and get very cheap gas.

There should be something akin to "Fair Trade" but for first world countries (labeling and pushing all the stuff which is made 100% with "local" country labor and all that).

That's why you have some of Mexicans (disc:I am Mexican) doing some jobs for peanuts... because otherwise, how much more would you pay for a tomato?

Actually, doing translation might be an option for her. See, a lot of translation agencies look for native speakers to translate to some other language (or from, I don't remember). If she dominates a second language she can actually offer her services advertising as "native speaker" which will give her an advantage against all the Apus from India or the Josés from México.

Yeah, Europe is the Utopia of freedom... so much that they get their panties in a bunch because of a couple of pixelated blood:

Mortyr (2001-10-24) Banned because of Nazi references.
Soldier of Fortune: Payback Banned due to high levels of gore (decapitations, dismemberments, and excessive blood-letting)
KZ Manager (1990-10-29/1990-11-19) Banned because of Nazi references.
Condemned: Criminal Origins (Decision AG Munic February 2008) Banned because of high impact violence and cruelty.
Condemned 2: Bloodshot Banned because of high impact violence and cruelty.
Manhunt (all versions, 2004-07-19) Banned because of high impact scary violence and cruelty.
Manhunt 2 Banned because of high impact scary violence and cruelty.
Dead Rising Banned because of high impact violence and cruelty.
Silent Hill: Homecoming (Uncut) Banned because of high impact violence and cruelty.
Wolfenstein (Uncut) Banned because of Nazi references.
Scarface: The World is Yours (Uncut) Banned because of high impact violence and cruelty.
Left 4 Dead 2 (Uncut) Banned because of high impact violence and cruelty.
The Darkness (Uncut European XBox360 version) Banned because of Nazi signs in bonus comic.
Bulletstorm Banned because of high impact violence and cruelty.
Dead Island Banned because of extreme graphic violence.

And no, I am not from the USA.

And teeth!

This reminded me the time I was living in UK, whenever I told a Briton that I was travelling to France, Holland, Spain or Germany they invariably told me "Oh, so you are going to Europe!"... really?

Interesting that you note Nightly,

I was using Firefox NIghtly until about a week. The last update rendered the alpha program unusable (it experienced several second pauses, even when clicking on the menu bar). Now I am using the release version and everything is fine.

Meh, just stack a bunch of porn in a TrueCrypt container and the important stuff in a hidden volume under two different passwords. When the judge orders to get the password just provide the password to the porn.

More and more I tend to agree with Hugo Chavez's view of the American government as an Economic Imperialist body. The fact that the EU can forcefully apply its laws and principles in other countires (and prosecute those who break those laws) is a sign of the strongold the American Economic Empire has on the world nations.

An equivalent situation would happen if Sharia law as applied in Iran was forced to the USA, EU or Latin America.

Guilty until proven innocent. We have that in Mexico, please do not let the USA get into that.