I'm in this very situation with my Logitech Dinovo Edge bluetooth keyboard for mac, which I like pretty darn well. After two years, the battery charge only lasts a couple hours. The battery is proprietary and sealed deep inside under layers of plastic and adhesive. The keyboard is still under warranty, but they refuse to service it. I can mail it back for a full refund, and they admitted to me that they will just trash it when it arrives, because they stopped making the mac edition. Even though the windows version uses the same battery of course. Ridiculous.

And despite it all I really would buy a new one if I could, because there's no decent substitute. Hell, I really wish they'd make a mac version of the K400, which has a less idiotic trackpad. I'd jump to buy that, and I haven't bought anything but food and booze for months.

It's true, that barely covers booze.

This one actually works just fine in real life.

Ban private gun ownership is particularly absurd.

"You know what's keepin' the little guy down? Those pesky private citizens and their right to own guns, that's what!"

But bless whatever fool posted that list, there are a couple decent ideas in there... (Note that it's just a post a post on their forum, just like a /. post, and not an official list of demands.)

Don't know where you live now, but if tax rates are that high I hope they include good healthcare coverage. We Americans have to hoard our wealth as a hedge against medical bankruptcy.

But honestly, when all's said and done, between federal, state, local, income, real estate, sales etc, the taxes here are pretty significant. We do get something for our money though -- most notably, an expensive military, arguably the best. There's a certain thrill to knowing that nobody's gonna parachute troops in to shoot me and take all my stuff. That would suck, no doubt. But I'm still pretty vulnerable to many other threats to my wellbeing that are best addressed by medical care. I'd be a little more delighted with paying taxes if those more realistic threats were also being addressed.

I think I have a solution -- the national health service should be a uniformed branch of the military! M.A.S.H. for the entire county! Peacetime? Bah, we have a war on terror, and we've all been deputized! Red blooded Americans will salivate at the prospect of a bigger military budget! Otherwise-listless teenagers will be drafted to care for the elderly! Doctors will get swank uniforms and medals! Everybody wins! Who's with me?

False dichotomy, my cowardly friend. "Troll" does not mean "I think you're wrong". "Troll" means "I don't think you even believe the shit you just posted. Who could? You're just hoping to fool the naive & sincere into taking you seriously and stressing out their precious phalanges trying to refute you or win your nonexistent heart to their point of view. I consider this an abuse of our ingenious internet protocols and precious bandwidth, a perversion of communication. Begone!"

(Of course moderators have been known to conflate those two interpretations every now and again.)

For my part, I don't believe Lumpy was trolling. I doubt, though, that firearms would have protected the OWS encampment. As soon as they flash their pieces, they're no longer obnoxious hippies, they're anarchist terrorists... which means they kiss their rights goodbye.

Personally I enjoyed Zucotti much more in OWS mode than in pre-OWS mode. In fact, if numbers were doable, I would expect that the average joy-per-NY-taxpayer return on Zucotti is higher due to OWS.

I would... I mean, this friend of mine would be fine with spending a little more to get the legal product for the same reason he prefers to buy his meat at the butcher rather than out the back of a truck.

For the purpose you describe -- casually browsing through a lot of versions of a song -- Youtube works pretty well. (They've gone back and forth over the years as far as hyper-vigiliance against possible copyright violations, and at the moment Google's pretty much looking the other way, but that could change.) But if it's truly public domain, you should be able use it however you want -- including performing it in public, sharing it, hosting it yourself -- without fear of legal reprisal. Availability on Youtube is a sorry substitute. It should be here.

And as far as the National Park analogy goes, visiting places like Yellowstone and Crater Lake is a lot less pleasant since Xanterra took over all the lodging and concessions, filling them with low-quality food and miserable, underpaid workers.

Weep, and the world halfheartedly laughs at you. Laugh, and the world doesn't really give a damn. Either way, the world is mainly concerned with extracting your labor and capital.

Less law = less paper?

Switch to a fuel you can store safely, ie, lanterns and stoves that burn wood, alcohol, esbits, candles... That won't help power your chainsaw of course, so you'd better be handy with that machete and axe.

Unless you want to count Murdoch, I think Richard Branson's our best bet. After somebody runs over his cat or something.

I very much agree. You can even repurpose that hour and a half to make yourself available on a consulting basis to the old gig. You know they're going to be calling you anyway, so you might as well get paid for it. You'll be saving money and time on the commute, and padding your income a little. Helping the old shop through the post-you transitional phase is good karma, and the unburnt bridge may come in handy at some point in the future.

Bravo, that's the final word for EVERY legal advice question!

...Well, almost. If you're playing at the big boy's table you can get law created or changed in your favor, so tally up your lobbyists along with your lawyers.

Face it -- starting off with the "I'm a good little boy and I don't want to break any laws" attitude is pretty pathetic. The entire 20th-21st century copyright ecosystem is in place because of bold people who dared to dream that they could be richer if they got the laws written in their favor. It's gone way, way past just compensation to creators; it's just a legally enforced racket. I can understand compliance out of fear, but nobody's going to send armed BSA goons to audit your MAME cabinet, so going out of your way to play along is a little perverse.

(Maybe O.P. is some sort of submissive fetishist?)