That's probably why he got posted as a security guard in a welfare office. It's not exactly a gravy posting for a cop.

As much as I'd like to agree with you, the Supreme Court has found that free speech is NOT an absolute. And it's not just "indecent material" and hate speech. You also can't yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater (to use the typical example). And you can't say untrue bad things about somebody else without being vulnerable to defamation law suits. There are exceptions.

With that said, this proposal is appalling. Who ever thought Demolition Man would become a reality.

"You are fined one credit for violation of the verbal morality statute."

Yes, both of these.

Also, as a practitioner's guide, Agile Principles, Patterns and Practices in C# by Robert C. Martin is one of the best books I've read. You don't have to be a C# programmer to appreciate it (the examples are in C#, but could just as easily be in any other OO language), but if you're turned off by C#, look for the earlier edition which, I believe, uses C++ for the examples.

Also, The Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas should be on every programmer's bookshelf.

I think you've missed one of the most important points about representative democracy. A representative's job (and in this case I mean both houses of congress and the president) is to know the most he or she possibly can about each issue he or she is to vote on. This is a more than full-time job. I'm a pretty informed voter, but I couldn't possibly be fully informed about every issue that congress and the president face. They usually aren't either, but in the ideal they are better informed than I am. When you vote, you should be voting for the person who you think will do his or her best to stay informed on the issues (or to work with people who are well informed) and will make the best decisions based on that information. That becomes even more true when we get into issues of national security because much of the information required to make informed decisions is classified.

And to respond to the main question of the discussion, I'm pretty committed to voting for Obama. I think it's past time to set the divisive issues of the baby-boomer generation behind us and try to move forward in a way that includes the most people possible, regardless of whether I agree with them or not. Obama is far more liberal (I lean more libertarian than any other particular label) than I'd normally be comfortable with. But I think he would be the best leader of any of the candidates (including the ones who have dropped out), and maybe equally importantly, I think he has a strong chance of changing the tone of US politics. And that is something I think we desperately need. I'm disgusted by the idea of 4-8 more years of Clintonian-Rovian "win at all costs and never admit a mistake" politics.