unless they get open source drivers!

Not until we have a one world government. Look up the concept of national sovereignty and how not everyone has "just as much right to be here".

Not going to help. The rig, and many other deepwater ones, are in international waters - if we nationalize/kick out all the American oil companies, there will still be Chinese, Venezuelan, etc who will drill without ANY oversight from the U.S.

Some people are afraid of what they can't see...

You know who else messed with poor defenseless Poles?

Until you and your sister lose your jobs and are unable to make the payments...

MPEG-LA is producing a subassembly of the camera (video encoding), therefore they are a sub-manufacturer (like Delco for the alternator that goes in your car). Copying is illegal because of copyright; my refrigerator has a stipulation in the manual that it "isn't for commercial use", but that's not (and shouldn't be) legally enforceable - all it does is invalidate the warranty; American Electric Motors can't sue me for a share of the revenues if I use the fridge with their patented compressor technology in my ice cream stand. Their opportunity to get paid was dealing with the fridge manufacturer.

Copying copyrighted material is a matter between you and the copyright owner - not the copier manufacturer. If a photographer uses his camera to take pictures of copyrighted paintings/statues (for example) and resell them, the camera manufacturer makes no difference.

Nope, when you buy the camera, you have the right to use it as you see fit - including running over it with your car. Reference the doctrine of 'first sale'.

Certain coastal areas (saw a few in FL/AL) since the water table is too high for underground tanks. They are put in a lined, bermed pit instead.

Agree about the dangers of ash and erring on the side of safety - however, airplanes "falling out of the sky" is a common misconception. Most multiengine airplanes can land safely with 1 engine running, and even if all fail, pilots practice engine out approaches in basic pilot training - at high altitude, a jetliner can glide up to 100 miles if the optimum lift/drag airspeed (different for different airplane models and one of the important emergency numbers for pilots to know) is maintained. This is one reason that most airline accidents occur during takeoff/landing - stalls, etc (while more likely due to slower speeds) have less room to recover. Unfortunately, the presence of the cloud over the oceanic portions of the airline routes will cause problems even with the glide range, since an expert ditching in the North Sea still results in a lot of cold wet passengers.

True, but then God said "Neitzsche is dead".

Not women/gays in combat - referencing how the Islamist societies of those nations treat women and gays and how the societies can hardly be called the "tree of liberty".

Tree of liberty except if you're a woman? Or homosexual (in which case you risk public flogging, execution, etc)?

Not so much. Like you said - s**t happens in war, and the large percentage of strikes are accurate. The big difference is that the kidnappings/beheadings were premeditated, while generals don't sit around with Predator feeds looking for schools to bomb.