Your comparison does not fit at all. There are decent colleges everywhere (and not the crappy ones you see advertised on TV). If a kid lives at home and works part time he/she should be able to get a degree and not have very much debt. That's what I did and finished my 4 year degree from an accredited school with about 9k in student loan debt. It's possible and not really that hard, but kids need to understand that the 'college experience' of living away from home while taking a few classes and getting drunk every night is very expensive and not the best investment of your time or money.

Very few people pay the individual tax rate either. The system as it is currently setup is simply too complicated. They need to remove all deductions and get some reasonable income band flat tax.

Also, while I'm ranting, why do I need to file taxes each year anyway? The government has all the information. Send me something to check, sign and send back if I agree. If I don't agree then I can go down the path of filing.

Between caps and content, I'm not sure the streaming side is really going anywhere. They are making good money with their DVD service, so wouldn't it make more sense to keep it around in order to fund, grow, and protect some risk on the streaming side? They can wind down the DVD side if it ever stops making money, but spinning it off now seems way to premature.

IMHO, we have seen a lot of miscalculations the last week or so from Netflix that sound like desperation. It makes me think there is another bomb that is going to be dropped.

Assuming you are NOT under arrest, and they don't seem to be digging on you (eg "did you see such and such back over there") not being an ass and actually being helpful is the nice and ethical thing to do.

Completely wrong. The problem is that police officers have shown time and again that they are NOT ethical. Keep in mind that a cop is ALWAYS gathering evidence. Sure you know you didn't do anything, but you were nearby. Now you're a suspect. Wait, you were by yourself, so now no alibi. The cop will then of course make stuff up like you looked nervous or seemed anxious. Suddenly you're a prime suspect. At this point all it takes is an eye witness (people see things incorrectly all the time, police can pressure someone to talk) which carry way more weight in court than they should and you're going to jail.

You may think this sounds crazy, but just look at people finally being proven innocent by DNA years later. Turns out the cops and prosecutors got a bead on them and simply make stuff up to make the case work. Don't think police make stuff up? Read this.

A friend of mine is a lawyer. His advice, never speak to the police without your lawyer present. First, he can obviously advise you and second the cop can't later lie in court about what was said.

You think Ohio is bad? Read about the crooked cops in Denver. Better yet they are still on the force! Even better is that these are only the ones they know about!

The list includes the names of about 81 officers still on the force out of 1,434. At least eight officers on the list have two or more violations. One officer has three violations.

The officers on the list have been found to have committed violations in at least one of the following categories: departing from the truth, violating the law, making false reports, making misleading or inaccurate statements, committing a deceptive act, engaging in conduct prohibited by law, engaging in aggravated conduct prohibited by law, conspiring to commit conduct prohibited by law, soliciting or accepting a bribe, removing reports or records, destroying reports or records or altering information on official documents.

At least seven officers are on the list for driving under the influence. At least 13 of the officers are on the list for violations involving dishonesty, considered a fireable offense at many police departments because such a finding could call into question whether an officer would testify truthfully.

And those are just the ones whose cases have been resolved with a finding that the complaint was "sustained." An untold number of other officers may be under investigation for dishonesty but testifying on any given day with no notice to the defense.

The real problem is that neither side is right. Tax hikes on the 'rich' and cutting some pork out of the budget is akin to using a 5 gallon bucket to bail out water while on the titanic. At this point neither will do much. The only way out of this is really a complicated plan no one wants to hear.

First, tax rates across the board need to rise some. Back to Clinton levels would probably be okay, but the government would need to be careful to not kill growth. Revenue growth is key. People like to rip on Reagan, and rightly so for his spending, but if you look at his second year as president once his tax cuts went into place, the federal revenue went way up over the Carter years. The entire economy grew and lower rates led to more revenue. Of course this only works to a point and we're likely below that point right now.

Second, pork while fun to point out is ignoring the elephants in the room - all of the government entitlement programs and military. These have to be scaled back. We have pushed the can down the line too long at this point. Obviously people want more programs when they are essentially free. Well it's time for the frank conversation that they are in fact not free.

The final piece is healthcare costs. This has to also be addressed in order to do any real problem solving because they tie into item two.

Without the three above pieces in place any talk of fixing the deficit or budge is basically bullshit rhetoric, and both sides are equally guilty of spouting this nonsense.

I had something similar happen. I had mallet finger and it took 2 5 minute visits to the doctor to fix it. First visit was to imobilize the finger, second visit 8 weeks later to to check that it worked. The doctors office was in a hospital and hospital billing decided to charge my insurance company for a surgery. I noticed it and called the billing department in the hospital and all I got was "oh yeah, sorry about trying to charge you thousands of more dollars, it's fixed now."

What it should be is a clear fraud case.

I had to take Oxycontin for 2 days once because of a knee surgery. I didn't feel any pain, but was a complete wreck and was either sleeping or hallucinating the whole time. I have no idea how oxy addicts function.

Just a note. G+ apparently listens to users and is rolling out the option to hide your gender this week.

Then just post to all your circles or go twitter style and post public.

Not to interrupt your rant, but playlists are a much easier way to manage music rather than copying files all over the place. You can make lots of playlists in iTunes [1], plug in your ipod tell it to sync those lists and you're done. Even a very large ipod doesn't take hours to sync. Best part is that you can manage those playlists (ignoring files...ugh) and the next time you plug in your ipod it will sync again. iOS5 is bringing OTA syncing so you won't even need to plug it into the computer, just a power source.

[1] Other music management software I assume now does it the same way with playlists.

Exactly. The other thing Apple seems to do is fine new tech that is coming, but not quite there yet. Then they go ahead and buy a huge amount of said tech up front and help pay to finish the tech/design/fabs. For the risk that Apple takes they get a good price for a certain number of units and exclusive rights for a period of time simply because the factory is working to fill the pre-order that Apple made.

It's a great business move by Apple and a smart way to leverage their cash reserves. It also requires a very strong long term vision from the top, and I wonder if Apple will be able to keep that up when SJ leaves.

"You give us the right to make derivative works from your stuff" is just about as far away from "usual" as you can get it.

With a clause like that, Dropbox can do the smallest of alterations to your stuff, sell it, and not give you a dime. Even if it's something that you sell for $$ and don't give away for free. Hell, with a clause like that, Dropbox can take your software code and release it under any license they want, essentially as if they were you.

No part of the law requires them to not list out what they do. "Make any derivitive works necessary for this service" would do it. This isn't the law -- this is their lawyers being either dickish or lazy.

Keep in mind that fight was not just about competition. Many good lawyers were mad at being seen in a bad light by the endless commercials for 'the strong arm' or whatever those late night clowns like to call themselves. The end result was that advertising is fine, but don't make a mockery of the profession while doing it.

That's why the person you responded to said "standard" car. Of course if you're buying rare collectible items that is a completely different scenario.