Because my tax dollars pay for their healthcare.

Who gets to decide what is "absolutely non-disputable"? Once you start arresting people for expressing their opinions, the path from "you cannot praise the Nazis" to "you cannot criticize the government" is steep and slippery.

Yes, all free ... unless your opinions on the history of WWII differ from the "official version". Or if you are muslim, and want to wear observant clothing. Or if you have a reason to defend yourself. Etc.

They are far less likely to leave their job than someone who is bad at their job and disliked by their employer. Either way, I have not found that good references are effective at differentiating good apples from bad.

If his previous employer really thought he was good, he wouldn't be looking for a new job. I give a glowing reference to any ex-employee who asks for one. Why should I care if you hire a turd? When I am hiring, I have found references to be so unreliable, that I don't even both to ask for them.

For my last opening I got 200 resumes. I interviewed five of them. If your resume doesn't stand out, there will be no interview.

My computer is already connected to the Sherline CNC mill in my garage.

You really think it would be that hard to find twelve jurors that don't read Slashdot?

Do you have any evidence that getting flustered in an interview is negatively correlated with technical ability? After thirty years of hiring people, I see no reason to believe that is true. When I hire people, I do a f2f interview, but I also give them a small programming assignment in a quiet cubicle, and I have found that to be a better indicator.

Either you are in the wrong business or you aren't looking very hard. NetBSD runs on almost anything, and is widely used in embedded systems. It is likely that some little black gizmo in your own home or office is quietly humming away with NetBSD inside.

The nice thing about spying on friendly nations like the UK or Singapore, is that their spy agencies cooperate with ours, and have similar restrictions about spying on their own citizens, but are free to spy on other citizens including Americans. So if the NSA/CIA wants to get some dirt on an American in America, they have the Brits do the spying. We return the favor whenever they ask. Everybody wins (or loses, depending on your perspective).

War is irrational in the same way that the prisoner's dilemma is irrational. Sure, the world would be better if everyone is peaceful. But if you choose peace unilaterally, you end up like the the Moriori.

Punishing the people who give the orders is important. But it is often even more important to punish the people that follow the orders as well. There are a lot more order followers than order givers, and every one of them should have an incentive to refuse to obey, or even better, report the illegal activities. There should be accountability at every level, and no one should be able to get away with the Nuremberg defense of "I was only following orders."

Exactly. This is the whole point of the legislation. Now they can use "pollution" as an excuse to purge political enemies, while claiming to be "tough" on the environment.

Excessively harsh penalties tend to be counter-productive because they are almost never carried out, thus resulting in a culture of impunity. A $5 fine for littering would be far more effective.

Nope. You are thinking of trademarks, which have to be enforced to remain valid. Patents have no such "use it or lose it" provision.

Out of the 200 million acres of wheat planted in North America, it was so conveniently only found exactly where the anti-GMO activists looked for it, but subsequently no where else. If I was a conspiracy theorist, I would say that the anti-GMO activists found it so easily, because they planted it.