>Do you believe rehabilitation is impossible or do you want revenge?

I don't believe that someone who commits mass murder can be rehabilitated, no. It isn't about revenge; it's about public safety.

Someone once pointed out that hoping a rapist gets raped in prison isn't a victory for his victim(s), because it somehow gives him what he had coming to him, but it's actually a victory for rape and violence. I wish I could remember who said that, because they are right. The score doesn't go Rapist: 1 World: 1. It goes Rape: 2.

What this man did is unspeakable, and he absolutely deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison. If he needs to be kept away from other prisoners as a safety issue, there are ways to do that without keeping him in solitary confinement, which has been shown conclusively to be profoundly cruel and harmful.

Putting him in solitary confinement, as a punitive measure, is not a victory for the good people in the world. It's a victory for inhumane treatment of human beings. This ruling is, in my opinion, very good and very strong for human rights, *precisely* because it was brought by such a despicable and horrible person. It affirms that all of us have basic human rights, even the absolute worst of us on this planet.

This is precisely why I lost all interest in Oculus the instant I heard that it had been acquired by Facebook.

This is good advice, and gives me an opportunity to speak to the community at large: some of us who go to cons and are in a position to shake tons of hands politely decline. It's not because we're being dicks, it's because we know it's a good way to substantially decrease our chances of catching and spreading any germs.

I played the PAX Pandemic game, where the Enforcers handed out stickers to attendees that read [Carrier] [Infected] or [Immune] (There was also a [Patient Zero].

I got the [Immune] sticker, and by the time I got home on Monday, it was clear that I had the flu. I've had a fever between 100 and 104 all week that finally broke last night, but I'm going to the doctor today because I think whatever I had settled into my lungs. I'll tell him about the H1N1 outbreak and get tested if he wants to run the test, but at this point I think it's safe to assume that I was [Immune] to the Pig Plague, but definitely [Infected] with the damn PAX pox.

Even though it's been a week of misery, it was entirely worth it, and I don't regret going to PAX for a single second.

This is why my motto (and fundamental rule for life) is Don't be a dick: it's simple to understand, and reasonable people can agree on what it means.

I'm not a Constitutional expert, but Article 1 section 8 gives the Congress the right to collect taxes to use "for the general welfare of the United States", so that wouldn't fall under the tenth amendment (which reserves rights NOT spelled out in the Constitution to the states). There are clearly limits on what Congress can do, but using taxes to invest in the economy doesn't seem to be one of them.

So your argument is against all taxation and government spending? American society has organized itself so that we elect representatives who determine how much and for what purpose tax money is collected. If you disagree you campaign against them and try to get them removed from office; failing that your only other options are to refuse to pay taxes (in which case you will go to jail), or to move elsewhere. If you agree to stay here and don't want to be prosecuted for tax evasion then the "forcible extraction" argument is a tough one to make. There are numerous countries around the world where you can live without paying taxes or dealing with a government (Somalia jumps to mind) but there are clearly trade-offs in not having basic services and security in those countries, both of which are benefits of money that (in your words) is "forcibly extracted" from citizens.

I'm not sure if "unconstitutional" was a typo or not, but I suspect it would be pretty difficult to find anything in the constitution that would go against using money from a bill that passed Congress to do what the bill specified.

As to immoral, is the assumption that using taxpayer money for anything other than core government services (defense, courts, etc) is immoral? From a "get back to basics" standpoint the argument against using ANY taxpayer money for anything other than these core things would make sense, but otherwise I think it's fair to say that the role of government has evolved to include acting as an incubator for future economic success. NASA is not a core service, but it is kept alive because of the technology it generates (amongst other reasons). College loans are not a core government service, but the US benefits greatly from having an educated workforce. Similarly, providing incentives to automakers to develop new technologies drives the industry in a direction that offers great potential benefit, and I'm personally excited that the government is actually including smaller companies that could potentially change old industries in some of the most recent programs. Tesla may not succeed, but if they do then this $400 million loan may some day be regarded as one of the best uses of taxpayer money that the government has ever committed to. Provided you can include investing in the economy among the roles that the US government has then this would seem to be a very "moral" use of taxpayer money.

Sony BMG spokesperson: We're pleased to announce we are the final major music corporation to release electronic tracks without that pesky DRM! All you have to do is leave your house, go to a selected retail outlet, buy a special card there, go back to your house, scratch off the back of the card to find a code, go to our special MusicPass Web site, enter said code, and download one the 37 titles we have available, from Celine Dion to the Backstreet Boys!

Kid #1: Or, in the time it takes me to jump through all those hoops, I could just download all 37 of those albums off of Pirate Bay.

Kid #2: Or, I could just scratch off the back at the store, record the pin number, go home and download the album through a Tor connection, so you can't trace my IP number.

Kid #1: Also, what's with this first slate of artists? Celine Dion? Backstreet Boys? Kenny Chesney? Barry Manilow? Are you high?