I am against civil forfeiture and feel that the government probably has the ability to freeze the accounts in this case (with sufficient proof) so the money isn't spent. They could dole out approved amounts as needed. However, I think one of your points is incorrect:

1) Innocent until proven guilty.

It is my understanding that one of the nasty things about civil forfeiture is that it isn't a question of whether the person is guilty but rather the money. Since money isn't a person with respect to Constitutional rights, it can be considered guilty until proven innocent.

It is pretty slimy but it is my understanding that is the rationale they use to take money easily and so rarely give it back.

He has spent his life after politics helping people, and not by hosting lavish "fund raisers" but by swinging a hammer helping to build actual houses for people to live in.

He has done so much more than that. The Carter Foundation has nearly eradicated the guinea worm in Africa. That is a stunning accomplishment that acts as a foundational change for those affected. They also do a tremendous amount of work with election monitoring around the world. Undoubtedly, I am forgetting things but those are the two items that always stand out the most to me.

From what I gather, his presidency was not that stellar and some of those items may have been out of his control. Still, he was in charge at that time so it becomes his responsibility.

I always liked Carter. Most people would view the presidency as the culmination of effort but he just seemed to treat it as another step in trying to help others improve their lives. As with everyone, he made missteps along the way but he genuinely seems to try and make the world a better place for everyone.

I distinctly remember using a historic version of Opera that had adds in the corner, which was actually intrusive. I then switched to a paid version which was without adds.

Free Opera had an ad in the upper right side of the browser. If you paid them, they would take it away. I do not remember the price but I do remember paying it because it was inexpensive and supported a browser I really liked. As noted numerous times on ./, the ad in the browser didn't take up any extra space. Once you were using the paid version, that ad space was just an empty grey spot. In other words, it didn't consume any extra UI space. I didn't find it distracting but I understand that can vary from person to person.

Again noted on /., Opera would frequently run comics in that ad section. I loathe advertising and would be ecstatic if advertising disappeared but Opera was far from obnoxious with its ads. I would almost classify them as reasonable. They were not intrusive and they could occasionally be fun.

In closing, I miss real Opera.

What kind of idiot "escapes" to a Caribbean island that has an extradition treaty with the United States?

From what I understand, he set up his business (San Francisco, I think?) but later moved it to Hong Kong. COVID restrictions became an issue there so he moved it to the Bahamas where he set himself up quite a nice house.

My impression is that he didn't escape there, he was just hanging out at his house.

Netflix still does DVD by mail. People in rural areas often don't have the bandwidth to download a lot of movies.

I have pretty decent bandwidth and I still get Netflix DVDs. Thanks to various agreements, Netflix streaming does not offer nearly as many movies as is available through their DVD service. DVDs are not bound by that -- they buy the disc and 'rent' it out. As a movie fan, I prefer that wide selection over being able to stream it as I want.

It could not be more clear that these are "covid shots" just like we have "flu shots". Because even if they are in principle like a vaccine, they do not give lasting immunity that can be expected to hold up for years against natural variations of this coronavirus

A google search for flu shot returns this from the CDC: flu vaccine.

I think "shot" in this case is just a shorthand for injection in general. "Shot" in the US, "jab" in England. An injection of something into you. In this case, a vaccine.

PBS Spacetime is truly fantastic. PBS' has a huge slate of YouTube channels that go into great depth about very specific topics -- music, literature, paleontology, etc. I encourage everyone to look into them and find some that appeal to them. If they continue to expand in directions like this, I will gladly throw money at them.

What about "blacklist?" Its etymology has nothing to do with race.

Blacklist and whitelist are not allowed where I work in favor of blocklist and allowlist respectively. The reason given was that "black" implied something bad. No commentary or anything, just pointing out one data point and the reasoning behind it.

None of these came out this year but I found myself rewatching them a lot.

Movie: Spaghettiman. Low-budget and more than a little goofy with some shaky acting on occasion, it does have one of the best archvillain creation stories I have seen. I also felt there was a lot of clever jokes throughout the film. I swear I like good movies!

TV Series: Harley Quinn. I wasn't expecting much from this but I love it. I love their characterization of Bane though the others characters are humorous as well. I am a sucker for shows that progress a story line as opposed to ones that just cycle the same thing week after week.

Streaming: The Dragon Prince. I thought this was a great kids show that had themes that scaled well to adults and didn't water things down.

As far as Glenn, I have a feeling that if he had a case the story would be printed already. Why? He'd basically print it and be right there, daring them to sue him. The fact he hasn't printed it says far more than his fluffy words of poutrage.

He did print the story here and the editorial emails here.

Obviously this is only Greenwald's side of things but it appears that the story and the suggested edits are out there for review. If there are any rebuttals and/or denials by The Intercept I would be curious to read them. Admittedly, I am not through all of these articles myself and really have no horse in this race.

See how your senator voted.

I knew a police officer who loved Reno 911. It was to her what This is Spinal Tap is to professional musicians. I always found that scary.

During the Baby Boomer era, a high school diploma could probably provide a comfortable living to many. In my era, a high school diploma was only good for getting into college but worthless otherwise.

Hackaday ran an article (actually, I think they have a bunch of articles about hacking the K40 laser) about buying a K40 laser off eBay and making it safe. It goes into some detail about the possible points of danger and how to fix them.

If you go camping in the woods and are afraid of bears, every shadow looks like a bear and every noise sounds like a bear.

I frequently go camping in the woods, I am terrified of snakes and I agree with your general statement. I will frequently carry a machete for the purpose of separating snakes from their lives. The thing is, I don't go wildly swinging every time I see a branch, twig or something in my peripheral vision move. I stop, quickly but safely move away from the thing that could be a snake and try and figure out what it is. If it is a snake, I then take a split second to assess how much of a threat it is to me and respond accordingly. More often than not, I simply avoid it. That's even knowing those bastards are a lot faster than I am, especially when I am tired.

On one particularly horrific trip, I was on a very narrow ridge line and ran into a rattlesnake (and I didn't have my machete). I spent nearly an hour trying to come up with a plan before deciding that chances were pretty good it didn't want to tangle with me. I had to pass well within striking distance but I moved slowly, carefully and deliberately past it. While not deadly, it was a mix of my worst nightmare and a decent dose of venom in the backwoods. I prepared for the worst but hoped for the best. It didn't want to mess with me and we both went out separate ways, happy that the other was gone.

I am not a professional woodsman, ranger or herpetologist. I do not have any training or experience in dealing with snakes outside of "kill them good" and suck at identifying them. Even with that, I know that if I get jumpy or panic then things are going to get really bad really quick and a good outcome becomes more pure fortune than anything else. I would be shocked to find that police are not trained to stay calm and keep the situation under control.