That is completely wrong. Individually owned firearms are used between 600,000 and 2 million times per year to protect their owners from a crime in progress. Their right to life and property in those cases were only preserved by owning that firearm and not by "strong laws and a properly functioning government." Owning a firearm, in additional to protecting against government tyranny, also helps preserve people's right to life.

Apparently you have never read any history of the US in armed conflicts after WWII. The second amendment has little to do with our gun violence rate. There are other countries with higher per-capita firearm ownership which have much lower rates of firearm violence. The US has a violence problem due to many factors which are too difficult for Congress to address in easy sound bites. The fact that a portion of that violence uses firearms is incidental and not caused by the existence of the firearms.

Avoid accidental infinite loops.

Is this the same as saying, "If it were allowed to pretend to pay its bills like any other government agency, the Post Office would actually be doing OK."?

Yeah, it'd be cool if someone wrote a short story about the dangers of ebooks and digital rights being taken a little too far -- censorship, criminal sanctions for sharing books, and how it would stifle learning. Something to help people understand where this could go. I suppose it's probably about fifteen years too late to do any good, now.

A mileage tax would be regressive, harming especially rural people and the rural poor. Most cities have some sort of public transportation that can be used to get to work and thus avoid a good portion of a miles traveled tax, not so in rural areas. On the other hand, rural salaries tend to be lower and commuting distances longer with no option for public transit. This would be especially hard on agricultural workers who can often barely afford a car in the first place (but couldn't work without one), but would now also be asked to pay mileage taxes on top. Vehicle mileage tax is inherently unfair, in my mind.

I used to feel the same until my current job doing network/server consulting. Now I often go to places that have a full-time IT person who has no certifications, and am shocked by how little they know. I feel like if they had at least gotten a basic server certification they would know what file and directory permissions were and why they are good, rather than looking at me with a blank stare

This. The main reason to upgrade to Win7 is for 64-bit. Unfortunately, it's also the main reason to put off upgrading. While we haven't had too many issues with software and 64-bit (though there are some), the main problem has been with peripherals. In our IT shop, none of the PC card or USB NICs that we had have a Win7 64-bit driver. Only one of our USB to Serial adapters has a 64-bit driver. A customer has handheld scanners for their warehouse -- no 64-bit driver. Same issues with printer drivers. So in addition to the training and workstation hardware issues related to upgrading to Win7, some companies may have significant issues with drivers for peripheral hardware.

I'm surprised by the number of friends I have who have marital problems because they didn't talk about important things before they got married. Or they talked about them, realized they would about them, and so stopped talking about them, figuring they would work it out later. Bad idea.

1) Money. The largest contributor to failed marriages. How are you going to deal with it? One bank account? One each? Three (two personal accounts and a shared account for shared expenses)? Remember that it's important for each of you to be able to spend some discretionary money on things like coffee, lunch and a more substantial amount on gifts. No one likes to have to ask for money each week. And do you really want to have to ask for $200? "What do you need it for?" "Oh, I wanted to get you those earrings you wanted as a surprise birthday gift." Discuss how you are going to deal with major expenses. If you buy a house, are you going to spend every last bit of your discretionary income to get the fancier house? Or are you going to not exceed 30% of your income so that you still have some breathing room? How much will you save every month? What if someone wants to go to school or quit work to take care of a baby? These are the things that kill a marriage later. E.g. Couple buys expensive house. Can't afford to save any money. Husband continues to charge expensive toys for himself because he feels "poor" if he doesn't. Wife is exasperated. Husband must work overtime every chance he gets, so he feels exasperated too. Both wonder if they married the right person.

2) Kids. Don't say you want them if you don't. Be honest now or miserable later. How do you want to raise them? Do you want a parent to be able to stay home and raise them? Are you willing and able to make those sacrifices? When do you want to have them? Are you willing to spend thousands of dollars for fertility treatments if necessary? How will you discipline them? What kind of schooling? Will you raise them in a religion? Discuss this issue thoroughly and honestly.

3) Communication. Others have already said this one, but it is huge even if cliched. If you can't talk about things opening and honestly with each other, one or both of you are doomed to misery. Hopefully you already have this down if you're affianced, but lots don't. You've got to be able to bring up difficult topics with your spouse and have to know that your partner will be able to listen objectively and discuss rationally with you. If you're afraid to bring up a topic because of you're partner's reaction, that's bad and a potential trouble spot waiting to erupt. Likewise, if there are any topics that you have an unshakeable position on, you'd better be sure that your partner really agrees with you and isn't just afraid to disagree. At some point something (like a child) may make her stick up for her own beliefs which end up diametrically opposed to yours. This usually ends badly.