If you really understand it you automatically come out a liberal or - even worse for you Americans - a European left wing (in other words: off the scale for you Americans - tut mir leit)

> Why can't America just face the reality as it is - that it is demanding not enough taxes

FTFY

Well, one of the theories regarding Crohn's disease and UC (both auto-immune bowel diseases) is that those people are missing a parasite. The disease apparently exist mostly/only in countries with high hygienic standards maybe also combined with certain dietary habits.

They are therefor experimenting with reintroducing certain parasites (and not just bacteria) in the human gut to counter the disease since pumping someone full with hormones or turning someones immune system off has its side effects.

So if you want side effects of not enough bacteria, this could be one.

I am wondering if this will change in the future. When everything can be found out about everyone, would the net result of so much knowledge not be that it devaluates? Will there come a time when people accept a certain number of drunken facebook pictures because they can be found for everyone?

And if we stay with the costs analysis: The costs of keeping a clean slate are very high. You have to be in tight control of your life every step of the way. You don't have to read Freud to imagine what might happen at some point.

I do not deny that we are social creatures that judge other people. But what we use to base our judgment on changes over time (not necessarily for the better, it just changes). Women can show their ankles these days, but there used to be a time when that was shocking and/or arousing.

This reply is just a hair away from: you only have to worry about your privacy if you have got something to hide.

I think the the attitude has to change regarding this sort of thing. I once heard that in some conservative circles people tend to distrust those who were not communist or socialist when they were young. Or in other words: when you are young you are allowed to do stupid things, otherwise you are somehow not right in the head when you are older.

But that is in Europe of course.

For the nokia there is an application that calls a phone number at a certain decibel level. You can then talk to your baby over the phone (speakerphone) while you are getting there. There could be similar programs for other smartphones/iphones

The biggest problem for me is that all parts of our culture are not ours at all, they belong to someone else and that person decides what we are permitted to do with it. And if there is some new technology developed down the road you have to update (=buy new versions) of your complete media library. Besides, I think it is funny (to put it mildly) that parts of laws and treaties that have to do with copyright law are kept secret even for our democratic representatives. If it would have to do with terrorism or something like that it would sound a little plausible, but why does that apply to copyright and intellectual property? And why do big corporations think that they have the right to write the actual proposals for laws, even if that law has to do with the protection of the things they claim a copyright of. Making laws is none of their business, that is supposed to be a democratic process. The end result of that all is - among other things - video's being deleted from youtube because there is some music playing in the background. And then I (and presumably a lot of people) just say frell it.

In Germany you are responsible for the content of the sites you link to. It was also discussed on Slashdot a while back. Apparently a note on your website saying you are distance yourself from content on the websites you link to is not enough.

The nazi thing never really went away. In Germany nazis nowadays hand out music CD's and soccer game schedules to school going children in the hope to 'catch 'm while they're young'.

They also host very nice events with all kinds of colorful play things.

You also have to look at the color of the laces in their DR. Martins.

Since there is a group of people looking like that who actually will attack you for being left wing or colored I can not blame them for looking at you in fear.

It is getting worse: some time ago the far right tried a hit on the police chief of a town called Passau.

If you talk about the way they look: it is the same uniform the far right wears throughout Europe. I do not know what they look like in America.

Maybe it is elitism, where the guys already on top somehow have more rights. Because welfare would again be that the little people get something because they have not enough (though I do not know if Celine Dione is on top of anything).

And It sucks you have to pay that much for renting a space even if you do not make music. Here in Germany, you pay for playing music in a business: if you own a little shop that is open 5 hours a day 5 days a week and plays some soft music for the clients you pay as much as a club playing loud dance music 24 hours a day. Luckily it is not that much.

I'm sorry but this is the exact opposite of Socialism. In socialism the more earning guys would get a smaller percentage than the guys who earn less. I think you mean this is totally capitalist.

Or Heineken for the Netherlands

I think you mean Marxism of the Leninistic Flavor did not work - according to Marx you need an Industrialized society before communism and a whole bunch of extra conditions before it gets going. In short none of the things Russia was. and then you had this Stalin guy... And then again, that is communism, not socialism. Socialism is an important force in European politics. And Europe did not start this crisis...