"Xenophobic"? Hardly. But I'm interested as to why you think so. Is it because I notice the people on Slashdot that state that they hope the US is brought down, or destroyed, or otherwise weakened?

I don't recall that -1 Disagree was an option. Are you sure you understand the role of the moderator? In the past far too much negative moderation has been based on facts contradicting political ideology, with the facts losing the contest.

I don't defend everything the NSA does, I simply point out the facts. Many people make false claims about the law, current events, terrorism, national security, the founding of the country, and the role of intelligence in defending a free society. That something legal is also disagreeable seldom changes its legality. Denying the existence of a fact does not change it. Intelligence agencies can pose a potential danger to a free society, but that is not the same as genuine current oppression.

The truth is the truth, the facts are the facts. They don't change based on their popularity. Do even 10,000 people claiming a lie is true change it from a lie to the truth?

If we always worry about leaving anyone behind, we can never truly move ahead.

People should be free to try to do new things without having to accommodate everyone.

Sorry A, but that still isn't a list of terrorist attacks other than passing reference to the Libyan sponsored German disco bombing that killed two U.S. soldiers.

"Woosh" youself, there were terrorist attacks in the US in the 80s. The list above is nonsense.

The housing crisis was "a huge blunder" that was a forced error due to Federal intervention trying to drive up home ownership. There was a reform attempt, but it was blocked in the Congress by, guess who? Dodd-Frank is an impediment to recovery, and yet another excuse for Federal snooping.

Post Mortems on the Financial Crisis

The only terrorist attack you listed was the attack by Iran's proxy terrorist group Hezbollah on the Marines in Lebanon.

I think there has generally been a reluctance in Western medicine up until fairly recently to make use of therapies of that sort, probably for a lot of reasons. Drugs and surgery tend to be well known treatments, and have the halo of modern science and a certain specificity to them. Using leaches*, maggots, and hookworms would seem medieval, and to be something of a Pandora's box, even if it works. Still, at least some treatments of that sort are making a comeback.

Medicinal Leeches: Nature’s Finest Surgical Tool From the Swamps

Maggot Therapy Takes Us Back to the Future of Wound Care: New and Improved Maggot Therapy for the 21st Century

This guy isn't some crackpot blogger, he's a respected law professor

He could still be (is!) prejudiced. Decent reporting -- such as what we expect from Slashdot -- would not derogatory terms, when describing one of the parties of an ongoing lawsuit.

Do they? The ones I remember seeing (IIRC) were trying to alter balance of existing gut flora, not replenish after a loss due to treatment with antibiotics. In that case, yes, that is what I recall - at least for a particular methodology for doing so.

People in the US are freer today in some ways, and less free in others. There is almost always pressure for the government to do something about this or that. The result is more regulation, and more laws. Economic freedom in the US has been falling, and making economic recovery more difficult. The result has been devastating to many people whether they are new graduates or the unemployed that can't find a job. Various other questions are being settled in the courts, such as the legality of recording the police, 2nd Amendment rights, and various questions of employment law.

The effects of Obamacare, the Dodd-Frank bill, and various others are starting to really kick in. There are other dangers posed, such as the DHS's license plate tracking proposal (scuttled, for now), and many others.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

The results of various antibiotics on gut bacteria are fairly well known - it kills them. The results on the digestive system can be "unpleasant." That is why you want to eat the yogurt, to aid in repopulating the gut with the bacteria needed for the digestive system to work properly.

It's because of the monoculture problem that I've come to favor Kefir. Yogurts commonly only have 1 or 2 strains, I think I might have seen varieties that have 4, or maybe even 6. But Kefir, depending on the variety, will have from 10-12 different strains. I think Kefir is going to be preferable to eating dirt since they all live nicely in the human gut. The stuff in dirt ...??

So what you're telling me is essentially that the viability of myself and any offspring is going to depend on a massive collection of perl scripts. Lovely. I'm forked. :(

If you are on an antibiotics regimen that is what you may not have. The idea is to replace them when the antibiotics have killed them. I've had doctors recommend it to me (eating yogurt when on antibiotics). I would now use Kefir.

Tattooed on the inner thigh. Forget a password? Just find the nearest restroom. With these new non-permanent tats its better than ever, and much less of a space issue. For extra security (in case anyone has X-ray specs) you can do a rot-13. Of course you do have to be careful if you go swimming, such as wear an old style suit or a maybe a "burkini" if a woman.

It is often advisable (consult your doctor) to eat a probiotic food such as yogurt with live cultures when on, and after, an antibiotic treatment. I've become a fan of Kefir .