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Comment Re:Is he gonna get compensated? (Score 4, Insightful) 190

Compensation for what? In the modern Western world, quaint notions of property rights and due process have been deprecated in favor of civil forfeiture, eminent domain for transfer to other private parties, stare decisis, and political connections.

You can't really own property anymore so much as lease it from the government for a yearly fee. (If you disagree with this viewpoint, try not paying your property taxes: then you'll find out who the real owner is.) Therefore, since the government owns all your stuff anyway, they have no need to compensate you for damages, since the government only damaged their own stuff.


Comment Re:Most don't understand the license plate motto (Score 1) 212

In particular, the thing that I like better in Mass. is the new Marijuana laws. It is one of the few states in the union that doesn't put you in jail for possession of a plant. This could change of course :-(

I think NH is much more likely to decriminalize marijuana sometime in the near future than MA is to *ever* decriminalize legal gun possession (snark), or lower its taxes, or repeal the zoning laws that make it so expensive to live near the wealthy people who elect the zoning boards.

Besides, I am willing to assert without evidence that tens of thousands of NH residents smoke up on a regular basis without anyone knowing. It isn't the best situation because of course it would be better if the state recognized an individual's right to engage in *any* peaceful behavior, but as a practical matter you can already exercise your right to love you, Mary-jane...

More importantly, there is actually a non-trivial percentage of people in NH who understand and believe in liberty: the same simply isn't true of MA, partly because NH is so close and attracts them.

Comment Re:Most don't understand the license plate motto (Score 2, Insightful) 212

I would like more specifics, though I'm not going to be a tool asking you.

In MA:

(1) Gun laws are ridiculous. Not worst in the nation IMO, but certainly in the bottom five. You want that Kimber .45 that is fully parts-interchangeable with the Para 1911? Sorry; those aren't approved for sale here! You want to remove that front sight from your Bushmaster and replace it with an aftermarket gas block with a flip-up front sight? Sorry; you have a pinned muzzle brake, because for some reason threaded muzzles are too dangerous! Dumbasses.

(2) Housing is way too expensive, mostly because of local zoning ordinances that restrict the density of housing. I'd love to live within a walk or a 10-15 minute T ride from where I work, for instance, but I'm not going to pay $500K for a 1400 square foot condo: it just ain't gonna happen. And there's no reason for it to be that way except for the artificial scarcity of housing within the Cambridge/Somerville/Boston/Arlington city limits.

(3) Local government is openly corrupt. Virtually every politically-connected demographicâ"the unions, the politicians, cops, large corporations, and many of the rich local property ownersâ"colludes to transfer wealth from everyone else to themselves. Taxes don't primarily go toward public goods and common services. My total tax burden is roughly 50% than it would be were I living in NH, and yet the roads in MA (for instance) are absolute shite. I've already had to replace one $500 rim from striking a huge pothole at night this year. While it's perfectly rational that things would work this way under a democracy, there's no excuse for it when there's so much waste, fraud, and pork to remove from the budget.

(4) 12% short term capital gains tax. OMFG. That alone cost me a huge amount of money over the past two years.


The downsides to NH from friends seem to be (a) the state-owned liquor stores have a generally poor selection, though they can order what you want; (b) getting zoning approval for houses outside of established neighborhoods is a PITA because they require you to upgrade the road if it isn't class V or better; (c) property taxes are generally higher than in MA. In return, they get a part-time legislature; generally more responsive local government; less local- and state-level corruption; less sprawl and more natural areas; better roads; and lower overall taxes.

Comment Re:I did the commuter rail thing (Score 1) 1137

The GP has a unique requirement:


Often, bringing a large and smelly hockey bag onto the subway is considered rude to other passengers.

FYP. :-)

And renting a locker at his local rink (if they even make this option available) would further add to the cost.

They don't, and even if they did, I play at different rinks. Keeping my equipment at work would be an option if I didn't have 10:30 games or Sunday games near my house. Buying two sets of equipment is potentially a solution to that, but there's only so far down the road of the absurd that I'm willing to go.

No sir, public transportation is not as convenient as cars. When your trunk serves as a personal storage locker... it make carrying stuff that doesn't fit in a small backpack more attractive to have a car.


Comment I did the commuter rail thing (Score 2, Interesting) 1137

And it didn't work for me. Here's the comparison:

35 minutes door to door

Commuter rail:
1:05 door to door



I'll drive, thank you.

Comment Dumb (Score 1) 382

This is a great idea: instead of allowing a bandwidth provider to charge more for a higher tier of service, government restricts everyone to the same tier, which makes it unprofitable for the provider to make available unlimited or high-limit pipes.

To all of you screaming about tiered pricing, let me give you a lesson from realityland, i.e., from someone who actually works in the industry: bandwidth costs money (somewhere on the order of $10/mbps/month for tier 2-3 providers) so if you intend to use lots of it you better be prepared to pay for it. That means if you want to max out your 30 mbps cable modem connection, you had better be prepared to pay at least $300/month just to cover the provider's costs.

Comment Reset! (Score 1, Troll) 437

Star Trek is in terrible need of a reset, like many comic book heroes have undergone multiple times over the decades. I hope this movie represents a clean break with the old universe; I mean, I loved half the Trek films, TNG, and DS9 as much as the next guy, but to preserve the essence of Trek they need to come up with character-driven stories that aren't bound by limitations in the history of the original universe.

Comment Re:Condolences, and thanks (Score 1) 385

Sorry, but no: it's my client, and I can view the content any way I wish. If they don't want people viewing the content in non-standard viewers, they can try to lock it down to DRM'ed clients; that said, heretofore attempts to restrict content to DRM'ed clients have generally failed.

Using open standards and allowing open access is one of the prices you pay for making content that people actually want to view.

Comment Condolences, and thanks (Score 0, Troll) 385

Unlike most of you blood-sucking parasites, Rick did something that enriched the lives and enhanced the productivity of millions of people every day. Most of you are nothing but a waste of bits: fuck you.

Rick: I'm sorry I didn't know you, but to say that I appreciated your work would be a massive understatement. Virtually single-handedly, you made the web usable by eliminating the distractions and allowing the content to shine through. RIP.

Comment Re:dont feed that bullsh@t to us (Score 1) 414

I think you probably should stop assuming that everyone opposed to government regulation is in favor of corporatism/mercantilism/fascism. In fact, most of us recognize that government regulations themselves are bought and paid for by incumbent large corporations to create barriers to competition, and those barriers to competition are responsible for the ability of said large corporations to commit abuses with impunity.

Neutrinos are into physicists.