So tell me something: Why, exactly, shouldn't California and New York dominate the decision to decide who is President? That happens to be where most of the people are. Generally speaking, in a democracy (yes, even a democratic republic such as the US), the choice of the majority of voters is kinda-sorta supposed to be who ends up winning. But ignore that for a moment. You say that California and New York should not dominate the Presidential election. In the system we now have, with the Electoral College, why then should Iowa, Wyoming, or Nebraska disproportionately determine who our President should be? You do realize that, under our current system, the votes of those states, as a proportion of the population, count for more than do the votes of California or New York, or North Carolina, or Florida. Rather a lot more.WaPo A better solution would be to introduce proportional representation, but we all know that's not going to happen.

And I have difficulty seeing how you could prefer the idea of arbitration, as it exists now, to using the courts.
Unless, of course, you already have a built-in aversion to anything involving the government.

Arbitration might be a good mechanism for resolving disputes, if there existed any way to ensure their impartiality. (I am referring here exclusively to the United States, as I lack sufficient knowledge to speak on the laws governing other nations). However, in virtually all cases where a consumer signs an EULA or other agreement stipulating mandatory arbitration as a means of dispute resolution, the arbiter is literally bought and paid for by the corporation, or whoever is selling the product or offering the service. This includes no input from the consumer as to who gets selected to mediate the dispute. Unsurprisingly, as of 2009 mediators found in favor of the consumer in only 4% of arbitration cases, and there have been numerous accusations regarding the influence of corporations on the arbitrators. As far as I see it, forced arbitration is nothing more than an attempt by greedy entities to circumvent the judicial system.

I have trouble understanding how Dolphin is taking 5 seconds to open anything on your machine. As a counter-anecdote, to open any of the largest folders in my filesystem in Dolphin on my laptop takes perhaps a full second. Dolphin taking 5 seconds on anything is, in my humble experience, absolutely unheard-of. Even accessing large network shares takes only 3-4 seconds.

Promotions aren't based on ability as it is. In every environment that might qualify as a medium-sized business or larger that I've seen (I grant you that it's somewhat limited), cronyism and/or seniority rule the day.

I know, I know, anecdote is hardly the plural of data and all that, but when that's all you're seeing, it sort of becomes easy to draw those conclusions anyway.

Warning: not an engineer, please read comment accordingly.

I have to agree on the Sakura. I've used a Micron, and the non-technical Gelly Roll, and they've both been wonderful: the ink has been smooth, with never a blob, smear, or dry spot, and the pen itself writes quite smoothly.

I'll also put in a recommendation for the Zebra Sarasa Clip. I use the 0.4 mm tip, and it can feel a little bit scratchy, but I naturally write quite small, so the precision of the fine tip works well for me. The ink is very consistent, with no blobbing whatsoever. Once in a great while I do hit a dry spot, though. It's also light and comfortable in my hand.

I don't know that you can actually get that model of Zebra here in the States, but I use JetPens. They have a good selection of different writing tools (mostly from Japan), and they're very speedy: I've yet to place an order using regular mail that has taken more than 3 business days to get to me.

...ugh, now I feel like a salesman. Which is slightly mitigated by the fact that I'm being a pen salesman.

What are Almalexia and Sotha Sil going to do now? Who's going to hang on to the Wraithguard? What does the Nerevarine think about all this?

Actually, atheism is not necessarily a worldview. It is generally recognized ( http://www.infidels.org/news/atheism/intro.html#at heisms/ ) as being divided into two camps: those of the strong atheists, who choose to believe that deities do not exist, which is in inded a worldview, and those fo the weak atheists, who simply choose not to believe in any deity, which is really a choice to not have a religious worldview.