The irony in all this is that China is still a communist country using capitalism to destabilise democracy.

China is communist by quirk of history only, much as the USA is democratic by quirk of history only. Both nations draw on their histories to unite their people. Neither speaks to modern realities having changed them.

China is clearly as capitalist as the USA, but while government in the USA is increasingly owned by corporate interests, in China it is the government that owns the corporations. While US corporations owned by disparate shareholders compete for relative advantage, Chinese corporations report to the Government who cares only for national advantage.

The outcome is thus not so much ironic, as inevitable.

karma, misery, and serious are all found on my network. And at one time or another, each had a role in my life :)

Is this information really necessarily private, or is it private just because we worry that it leaves us somehow more vulnerable? Have any of us really thought through what "vulnerable" might mean?

Some alternative thinking: Our data, ourselves at The Boston Globe.

> For a while now, I've been wondering what the purpose of the USA economy is.

Look up the Story of Stuff, and discover the magic of your own economy! As someone else pointed out, the US economy depends on an active B Ark.

US porn is not Australian porn, and is definitely not Italian or Dutch porn (just to pick two). Obviously, any US legislation requiring use of .xxx would only apply to US porn, and thus international porn would still be available to people operating from the USA.

I see no problem, except that maybe the US porn industry might find it easier to move offshore.

I have no problem with my DNA being sampled and recorded for eternity. My very real problems lie with who has access to that data, and how they expect to use it.

I have variously read that in agriculture, fields of GM crops are contaminating non-GM plantings, to the supposed detriment of large corporate enterprises despite their desire to restrict that contamination. How far-spread is my own DNA, given that I have had no desire to restrict contamination of bus seats, roads, rubbish bins, toilet seats, gardens, and my office desk?

Once someone in Authority samples my DNA, I give up my immutable identity. Identity theft currently exists where an impostor learns some basic information in order to bluff someone who identifies me by the same information. Although mildly inconvenient, I can change that by moving, changing my name, etc. How do I prevent someone from picking up my DNA from the door handle at the front of my house? And once they do, what can I do to stop them using it against this DNA database? Moving house just makes the problem worse...

Well, that's off my chest now, anyway.