You're right, Mecca and Medina are located inside Israel...

....um, I mean, I'm confused.

Wait, I know, it must be because Israel goes around destroying religious monuments sacred to Muslims, right?

...umm, well, let's move on.

It must be because Israel actively persecutes Muslims through their legal system...

........

Fuck it, we should just attack Israel anyway. We'll think of a reason later.

I may pay only 7 cents per kwh, but my government pays roughly 80 cents per kwh for the electricity that they then sell to me for 7 cents... to a select number and type of generators of course.

http://xkcd.com/747/

Of course not, but as I said above, even if the delay is completely reasonable, it is still aggravating. Perhaps I should not be angry, but damn do I feel angry. And, should I get attitude from the IT guy when I (very reasonably) ask how long a certain procedure will take, then I get really pissed off.

The question was " Why are IT people disliked?", not " should IT people be disliked?"

I'm sure there are many valid and semi-valid reasons for all that IT does, but when I have to waste hours of time that I don't have, it pisses me off. Sorry for being human.

Also, I moderately resent the implication in a good chunk of this thread that just because I'm not in IT means I have no idea what's involved. That type of attitude also contributes to the hate-on.

As somebody on the receiving end of IT "help", I'll tell you why I get annoyed.

I have a job to do. At home, the process is simple. I turn on the computer, and it just works. However, on the job, it feels like the IT department is trying to make my life as difficult as possible, while admittedly streamlining their own work. Sometimes I make requests that would save me hours a day, and the IT department complains because it will slightly increase their own workload. As for certain simple programs, and it takes them weeks to install those programs, costing me hundreds of hours in productivity a year.

I get that IT has a job to do, but it feels like IT often forgets that I have a job to do as well, and that at the end of the day their role is to facilitate my ability to do my job.

As the parent said, IT often sets things up in a way that is best for IT, not necessarily for the other employees... and that is objectively not the role of IT at all. As one of those employees, I am aware that IT is making their life easy at the expense of my productivity, and it really really really annoys me.

Of course, the difference between a warmist and a denier is precisely the size of the error bar.

Well... can they predict the number of hurricanes within a reasonable range? That's a trend...

Are you saying that global warming will not impact reptiles?

The nice thing about anecdotes is that they are a good substitute for variable-controlled science, with a much smaller pricetag.

Speaking of anecdotes being more useful than science, I've heard that the polar bear population is doing well. Apparently, the Inuit hunters have seen a lot of bears, which is pretty much conclusive.

http://www.researchandpractice.com/articles/2-2/dowsley-1.pdf

How about I tell you a nice comforting story about how wind and solar power will solve all our problems instead?

Denier: Ah hah! Told you all! Told you all!

Warmist: World is still getting warmer, which means we will all die

Skeptic: These are all extrapolations which are barely worth the paper they are written on

Denier: We need to stop with the environmental programs, they are killing the economy

Warmist: We need to stop polluting, the world is in jeopardy

Denier: It will cost trillion to "save" the world, and it might not even be saved. Anyone who wants to spend that kind of money on a crapshoot is an idiot

Warmist: Can we afford to take a chance? Our choice is trillions now, or quadrillions later. If you don't agree with me, then you are an idiot.

Skeptic: Anybody who wants to take drastic action on the currently available data is an idiot.

Did the order state that I also lose control over my account? My understanding is that users can delete their account at any time, is that not correct? (Luckily, I suspect it will not be a contested divorce, so I won't have this issue, but imprisoning me over deleting my facebook account seems to be... harsh.)

Well, I will probably looking at a divorce in a year's time or so, and if I was ordered to turn over my facebook password my very first action would be to delete my profile.

hopefully it is not mute, otherwise releasing the video would be moot.