You don't have to be clinically depressed to believe that you'd be better off somewhere else than where you are now. For example, the small island nation of Dominica scored near the top of the world happiness index a few years ago, yet young people emigrate from there in droves in search of high paying jobs in wealthier countries.

Somalia doesn't have statelessness, it has an overlapping collection of theocracies and despotisms. The main exception is Somaliland in the north, where there's been a functional breakaway republic for years and there's a noteworthy level of prosperity. Somaliland has been completely unable to secure any kind of foreign recognition, largely because if it gets it, it ruins the claim that the vampires at the IMF have to shakedown the Somali people to repay the loans made to the Barre regime. The upside of this lack of recognition, however, is that the Somaliland government hasn't been able to get foreign aid, which, as it turns out, suppresses development rather than fostering it. But condemning foreign aid to governments of low income countries is about the only conclusion one can reasonably draw from the twenty-first century Somali experience, it doesn't speak to the efficacy of statelessness at all (either way).

True, although at least it solves the problem of them setting on fire.

Whereas you are a troll without even that much of an objective.

Kubuntu isn't good enough?

If you really think the NSA has any meaningful domestic restraint, hey, that's your call. But that you imply that every country in Latin America is a police state is pretty much a conversation ender for me.

Everyone has law enforcement, not everyone has no knock raids that go wrong so often it's a meme. And the NSA clearly has a free hand in the U.S. as well, so that's not much of an argument. I would consider setting up a service in Hong Kong, most Scandinavian countries, Canada, and a few countries in Latin America and the Caribbean before I would consider the U.S., the particulars of the situation would narrow it down.

What I don't understand is why anyone runs any service with any sort of privacy angle from the U.S. There are freer countries with good Internet access. Pick one, and put all those U.S. subpoenas on the bottom of the birdcage, where they belong.

I don't think they actually give a shit about the public interest. It's just expedient for them to say they do.

The sad thing is that it sounds like you really believe this. Sure, it's far from the worst in that there are regimes out there that make today's U.S. look like the Boy Scouts, even with its no knock raids, indefinite detention without trial, mass surveillance, and the like. But if you think there's nowhere better out there, you're willfully ignorant.

Agreed 100%. Moreover, use of these sorts of weasel words that "journalists" love so much is part of the problem.

No, what's reasonable depends on whether the "haves" are picking people's pockets to get that way. Unfortunately, thanks to our corporatist system the answer is "yes" depressingly often.

Pretend he said "consulate", and then laugh. It was a joke, not a geography lesson.

We the Living was pretty good. And Anthem is so short it doesn't matter. But the others... yeah I read them, but usually don't recommend them.

Yes, I've always thought the approach of U.S. policy makers of completely disregarding criticism is more efficient than the approach of Chinese policy makers of trying to stop it and responding to it when it happens.