Don't be so sure. Bush was elected to a second term. Ignorance was a valid claim for the first, but no one can say "gee, I didn't know" about his second term. Never underestimate the stupidity of large groups of people acting together.

Noticing that your backups have failed isn't the time to go searching for another backup solution.

Until your cloud backup provider goes out of business or stops offering the service. You think rsync is a lot of work? Try keeping current on the status of Dropbox and SkyDrive services so you can pull your data before they disappear. I guarantee you that a properly stored external drive will outlive either of them.

Oh, and if you were trolling with that first post, kudos on playing it out so long.

Personally, I'd prefer that my surgeon not be standing on one foot while wielding a scalpel.

Text is a visual pattern that we recognize just like an icon. When we read "Save" or "Format" from a menu, we're not processing and deciphering that text. We recognize the word just as instantaneously as we recognize a stop sign. Within limits, different fonts and colors do nothing to impede our recognition because we're only working with 26 basic building blocks (letters). Once we "learn" a new word -- that is, once the word becomes visual symbol in our minds rather than a string of letters to be interpreted -- we instantly recognize it in any application that displays it in a menu.

Icons, however, are not made up of universal building blocks. They do not become instantaneously recognizable symbols until we learn them. Sure, we all recognize the universal Save disk or Paste clipboard that most every application uses. But what about Archive? Merge? Format? Uncomment? Outside of a few universal icons, every app is different, and until we learn that app's symbology we're wasting time interpreting (or worse, looking up) the icons. For. Every. Single. App. We. Use.

So why use icons at all? They save space, save time (fewer mouse clicks), and CAN be easily recognizable -- but only if we take the time to learn them. I don't want to bother when I already recognize a symbol for the same thing -- a one-word description of the task.

Symbols made up of 26 basic building blocks which I already recognize, and which can be unambiguously interpreted when I don't recognize the symbol as a whole? Win.
Symbols made up of arbitrary lines, curves and colors that I need to learn for each app? Epic fail.

Agreed. In a split second I can recognize text in a wide variety of fonts. Don't make me take an extra second to think about what your specific icon does -- or far, far, worse, make me take an extra four seconds to hover the mouse over it for a tool tip because you wanted to get super creative with the icons.

First it was Microsoft and replacing text menus for the ribbon, now Google and replacing text on Gmail buttons with icons. There's a war on usability and its instigators are UI designers.

Because we have a reasonable expectation that it WILL affect us. With irrevocable consequences. You've already acknowledged that someone who "may have to pay for the consequences" should have a say in what is allowed behavior:

The potential consequence to the insurance company is a cash payout. The potential consequence to me is pain, death, or dismemberment. In both cases they are potential consequences. No one disputes that. But they are consequences that have happened before, and we have a reasonable expectation they will happen again.

What science fiction novel are you living in? Have you thought it through yourself? Drunk driving laws have been on the books for years and no one is clamoring for an Orwellian enforcement regime to ensure that people don't have "unapproved" beverages in their car. Police check behavior when looking for drunk drivers. No one inspects our cars annually for beer cozies, Jägermeister empties, or keg taps. We don't have breathalyzers attached to our ignitions unless we've already driven drunk. And rounding out the analogy, our alcohol providers -- retail stores and bars -- require government approval, with very little burden to the consumer.

Get a grip.

Just prepare to be way more liberal with social support and criminal justice systems, too. Outside of a few major cities, public transportation in the US ranges from impractical to non-existent. In many places, no license == unemployed == government checks OR crime. I'm not advocating for letting dangerous drivers remain on the road, but we do need to consider the whole picture before making policy changes that have far-reaching repercussions.