If by "now" you mean in the year 2014, you might have a point.

A constitutional amendment requiring public funding of all federal elections.

#1 -- everything you would do on a touch-based smartphone (minus making calls), except with 4x the screen real-estate. It makes a huge difference, especially in web browsing.
#2 -- consume content in comfort. I hate watching TV or movies on my computer, but in bed or on the couch, it's a pleasure. It's also a decent book reader (unless you are outside in the sun). Yes, you can do this with a laptop, but when you compare the two, the pad is way more comfortable, portable and easier to set aside.
#3 -- Apps, apps, apps. You will likely find 2-3 apps that you can't live without. I have Ampkit+, which is an amp and effects simulator and recording device that replicates thousands of dollars' worth of equipment for about $50, including the input dongle. Many of the games rival console games in graphics and immersion, most for under $10. There are plenty of SSH, VNC and other network apps for very cheap (compared to desktop software).

On top of those three reasons, the convenience of instant-on cannot be over emphasized.

"Most of them could care less about the man."

If they could care less, that means that they care some. I think you meant to say they couldn't care less.

"I understand there's sort of a holy aura around the president, where he's viewed as some sort of quasi-deity because he's not George W. Bush"

Nobody claims these things except people who don't like him.

"People that are watching Mythbusters are already interested in science and that sort of thing, why is bringing politics into the show going to influence people to like science?"

The whole point is to get people to watch Mythbusters who don't normally watch the show. Then they might see that science doesn't have to be boring and develop an interest in it.

No buffering, according to this article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20100917/tc_pcworld/samsunggalaxytabfaq

"All content from the Media Hub is offered as downloads over Wi-Fi. There will be no online streaming through the Samsung Media Hub."

Shouldn't be that hard to figure out. Firefly cost $3 - $4 million per episode to produce, so you'd need 4 million people willing to pay $1 per episode. According to Wikipedia, the average weekly viewership for Firefly was 4.4 million, so the only barrier to this working is distribution. Hey, maybe Apple could help with that...

Another anecdote to offer support to what you're saying. I was at a poker game the other night and noticed that two of the other guys also had iPhone 4s. I asked them about their reception and both said they hadn't had any problems and couldn't replicate the problem -- neither one was using a case. I have a case on my phone now, but I used it without a case for 3 weeks and was able to reproduce the bar drop one time when I was in a fairly weak signal area. It dropped from 3 bars to 1. I haven't dropped a call in the month that I've owned the phone.

I think this is a real issue that affects a very small percentage of owners of the phone.

How in the world does "I can hear it now..." followed by your fantasy imaginings of things that no one actually posted constitute "valid criticism" of Apple, who in this case did nothing other than release the source code of 27 year old software for the general public to play with?

I wouldn't go so far as to call it hate, but there's something going on behind your post beyond criticism. It comes across as a bit pathological.

I'm not sure you understand the iAds concept. Apple created an ad framework that developers can use to serve advertisements within their apps. If you don't download and use ad-support applications, then you won't ever see an iAd.

If you do see an ad, your anger should be directed at the developer, not Apple. Besides, developers are already using a multitude of ad networks to serve ads in their apps, so this doesn't change anything except to make the ads less intrusive (they don't take you out of the application if you tap on them) and more interactive.

The reloading bit has to do with the limited (relatively) amount of RAM that the iPad has (256M). When memory runs low, the iPad automatically dumps the cache of the page and reloads it from the network when needed. Not much that you can do about that except wait for the next generation models which will undoubtedly have more RAM. I agree on the overall "tab" experience. It's painful and one of the weakest parts of mobile Safari. I haven't tried it yet, but I have read that Atomic Browser has a good tabbed interface which appears to work the way you want it to. You can find it on the App store.

Since "good" is a subjective term, I'm not sure if that question can be answered. A few of my recent full-album favorites are American Idiot, by Green Day, and Black Holes and Revelations, by MUSE. I'm sure other would have different favorites.

Well, ATV streams YouTube videos and displays Flickr albums, so it's not unheard of for them to partner with a third-party for content. I wouldn't rule it out.

I think there must be vast differences in battery lives among the same model of phone. I also have a 3GS and have no problem watching a 2 hour movie, which uses about 50-60% of a full charge. I keep my screen pretty dim, though, so that might affect it. I hear friends complaining about the battery life, but mine seems pretty strong, so I think there must be some wide variation.