The only reason that PV solar has not destabilized the power grid so far is because there is less than 1% of the electricity produced from it right now. If that should reach somewhere around 10% we'd have the grid instability be a daily occurrence. By "instability" I mean blackouts.

How are those daily blackouts coming along in Germany?

What bullshit. The IRS investigated all those fake nonprofits because there was a sudden crush of them and they didn't appear to be legitimate. And the investigators were right: many of them were straight-up electoral or lobbying organizations that don't qualify for tax-exempt status.

The right-wingers are screaming, yet again, because they got caught. It's not discrimination when you're the only ones trying to cheat.

For all its servers and software, Google does not have an Army or a Navy.

Yet. Don't give them ideas!

Agreed. I voted for Obama twice and agree with a lot of his other policies, but this is bullshit. When your government's actions violate the Constitution, you don't need "oversight." You need indictments. And all the fancy dancing in the world doesn't change the fact that the Constitution specifically prohibits mass surveillance--the whole bit about being "secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures."

Look, I can even understand if Obama were to say he can't dismantle this surveillance apparatus all at once, he can only get started in the next couple of years on cutting out the most egregious abuses, yadda yadda. I realize there's a lot going on, and there's such a thing as institutional inertia. But damn. "Oversight" isn't the answer.

Rights always have limitations and can be taken away for cause. That doesn't make them the same as mere privileges.

Bullshit. I give you 49 USC 40103(a)(2)

Sure, it's a crime. It's not a $183,000 crime. Proportionality matters.

True story from my sys admin days.

It was a Netware 3.12 shop (yes!) and I thought it would be a good idea to scan for vulnerable user passwords. I bought and installed a commercial password-cracker tool for admins, and watched it run. Maybe 20% of our users had pretty bad passwords: MyFirstName123, obvious dates like birthdays, that sort of thing. I got in touch with each such user individually and counseled them to pick something more resistant. One of them was really surprised though.

She was from a village in India, a place so small nobody even really has last names. And she used her uncle's single given name as her password, telling me later that it seemed like something nobody here in the U.S. would ever guess. She was half right: none of the humans knew that name, but our cracker's dictionary attack sure did!

So your point is right on: it's not that the imaginary cracker would know this woman's uncle's name--but the cracker wouldn't be too far off in guessing that perhaps someone was using that name for a password.

Yes and no. When I had a case in the Ohio Court of Appeals, I looked all over the rules for information on font sizes and such. Couldn't find any. Called the Clerk's office. The person who answered the phone there said, "Look, most of our filings are from inmates and they're handwritten. We're happy that your brief is typed at all."

Yes, barely won, the margin of votes was small in key states that could have tipped the electoral college vote either way.

Complete bullshit. Obama won the electoral vote 332 - 206. Suppose you give Romney all the close states, so anything less than a 55% win for Obama counts as a Romney state, okay? That gives Romney Florida (29), Ohio (18), and Virginia (13), changing the totals to Obama 272 - 266. You'd have to throw in Colorado (9), which Obama won by 5.37%, to make it a Romney win.

You do know people can look things up and check your facts, right?

Say what you want about the bin Ladin raid, about the ACA, about the website, whatever. But your point about the 2012 election being on the cusp is just completely wrong.

Their helicopter crashed in action in Afghanistan. Do you really think the Taliban fighters singled out that one helicopter because they were keeping track of who was on it?

First off, let's not call human beings blood suckers, okay?

Second thing, having insurance--even if it's Medicaid--means you get preventive care and you get to see a regular doctor in a regular office for regular prices for ordinary things before they become emergencies. That's how it lowers the cost.

That's not new information. You're just being disingenuous.

...For Profit is innovation driven

*snort*

At best, For Profit is profit driven. It's often short-term-stock-price driven or cover-my-ass driven or CEO-bonus-driven. Once in a great while it's innovation driven, but generally only when all other alternatives have been extinguished.

The other thing wrong with it is that it means owning your own house, or a substantial brick/mortar business, would be realistically only available to people who don't mind sucking up to the regime. Sure you can move... if you can afford to leave your investments and livelihood behind.

Like consent of the governed, yo. What makes them think they could get a monarchy even if it was a good idea? How the hell do you even go about that, and when you do--who chooses the first king? I can't imagine much outside of an outright military coup, which doesn't bode so well for a well-running modern nation state.