I may be biased here - I first came across operator overloading a good decade and a half ago, when C++ was used in the first iterations of object-oriented databases.

It was a proper mess back then, and I fear it still is - if I want the sort of behaviour you wish to enforce, then Scala would be my language of choice - I still view C++ as C with object wrappings, templates and lots of stuff that gets in the way of efficient code.

I'm one of those who detests operator overloading, for the simple reason that if you want a new operator behaviour, then you should define a new operator - it makes code easier to read and maintain, and avoids confusion.

But that's just my experience - you may differ.

Good laws aren't based on beliefs - or more to the point they have a justification that lies outside any belief system.

Murder is against the law because if it was not, it would be an acceptable solution to lots of life's problems, and would leave a lot of people significantly worse off either materially or emotionally.

If the only justification for a law is a belief system, then that law is automatically bad for those who do not subscribe to that belief system.

I dunno - a box with a couple of Tileras in it and a good Btree implementation ought to be able to handle it - chuck a couple of hundred cores at what is after all a layer 7 routing problem, with 8 x 40 GB interfaces, and plenty of RAM, and 1ms should be achievable.

Well, with the Baltic Dry Index (which is a measure of shipping costs) being at a 10 year low because there are more ships touting for business than goods to be shipped, you're not going to see bunker oil replaced as a fuel any time soon.

Much like jet fuel, this source of pollution is inviolable in the eyes of the political class, because it is too important to the way the economy works. They'll push gasoline to $10 / gallon (diesel is already almost there in the UK) before they even consider making it more expensive to move goods or fat, well paid arses around the world.

+1 - and I'm speaking from experience.

Hell, I'm nearly 50 and still can't quit cigarettes, but quit a smack habit 30 years ago with only a couple of weeks of sweating, random limb movements and generally feeling like death warmed up.

Now if we could find a vaccine against stupidity, maybe we would be able to kick the "war on drugs" habit.

Hell, why not?

It's not as though "chemical castration" was used as a "cure" for homosexuality only a few decades ago, and contributed to the suicide of Alan Turing, is it?

A far better solution to heroin addiction is providing clean, known strength heroin by prescription to those who choose to indulge, while giving them help coming off the stuff.

This vaccine is a pretty neat trick, but until it's been studied and tested then prescription heroin is the best solution, followed a long way behind by methadone, and with the "war on drugs" being the absolute worst.

Someone tried to take Labour to court over manifesto pledges.

The response: "Manifesto pledges are not subject to legitimate expectation".

Read out by Gordon Brown's lawyer in Brighton Crown Court, 7th Feb 2008, in answer to a case brought over a referendum on the European Constitution.

I'm pretty sure that the Labour placemen still infesting the police and the security services would love you to believe that this is all the idea of those nasty Tories.

After 13 years of statist poison, our institutions need a good purge, but that hasn't happened. If the buggers thought they could get ID cards back on the agenda, they'd try.

Brecht had it about right - it's a pity we still aren't listening.

After the uprising of the 17th June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?