Damn. Did I just say that?

But really, limiting searches to what is relevant to the arrest makes perfect logical sense. Otherwise the door is wide open to limitless abuse.

And what about encryption? How does current law treat encrypted files on a PDA or laptop searched as described here?

Note to Farhad: Why the emphasis on the iPhone? The iPhone has broken no new ground that I'm aware of. Palm devices have been around for years, and Windows CE PDAs not much less. And travelers have long carried laptops with them on vacation, to business meetings, etc. All are equally capable of carrying loads of sensitive files, passwords, bookmarks, etc.

...and I would not want to know this woman. For those of you defending her, you may have valid points but damn! That was just awful! Regardless of what the kid did or said, her tone was unexcusable.

As far as the kid goes, it's irrelevant whether he wanted a snow day or not. His message could have legitimately been on any number of subjects: scholastic sports, after school activities, etc. If the family does not wish to receive such calls it should get an unlisted number. Further, I suspect that his message was polite since he was not disciplined.

I went back and read the original article and was struck by Gate's comment:

"We have to find a way to make the aspects of capitalism that serve wealthier people serve poorer people as well."

You would think, by this comment, that Gates is addressing an intractable problem that has yet to be solved. But it has. Konrad Adenauer had his "Market economic policies with a social conscience" (Die Soziale Marktwirtshaft), which were based on the ideas of John Maynard Keynes. And it worked. The post WWII era of Keynesian economics was one of the most prosperous of our history.

So in answer to Gates, yes we have found a way. It's just not a way that is palatable to the plutocrats who run our world as it involves government stepping in to ensure everyone gets a fair share of the spoils, thus lowering their profits from monstrous to merely stupendous. They advocate that The Market do this instead, knowing full well that it never can, since "the aspects of capitalism that serve wealthier people" cannot serve the poor because capitalism is about wealth and the poor, surprisingly, don't have wealth! Thus Gates and Scott are pretenders and will ever remain pretenders.

And anyway, it's not the CEOs; I imagine that they are for the most part a fairly decent lot. The real problem is that laissez-faire capitalism is systemically evil and thus cannot, even with all the best will in the world, do what Gates and Scott are claiming it can.

Martin Heinrich's ad is right on. He knows, because his parents lived it. My mother is from Valencia, Spain and lived through the Spanish Civil War and Franco's subsequent repression. Many Spaniards today still remember living under Franco and remain vigilant.

The problem with so many of our fellow citizens is that most have not experienced the vile excesses that will inevitably come with the dismantling of our freedoms and the increasing grant of absolute authority to the executive. They think they are Free simply because they are Americans and will remain so in perpetuity. Just scare them with the The Terrorists and they are willing to sell out all our principles for some illusory security.

I'll take my chances with The Terrorists. It's the Government we need to worry about. The vast majority of our trillion dollar budget goes to the executive branch, who thus have the resources and power to do whatever they please, with Congress increasingly unwilling to check them. We should all be very very worried.

Then don't.

It's bad enough that Republicans and their accolytes in the media beam around these self-serving, factually challenged talking points. They don't need any help from you.

The fact of the matter is that We The People, the ordinary citizens of this country, have less and less say on what happens to us. Our Executive Branch of the government has been hijacked by corporations and their well connected agents. See how well Halliburton is doing! See how rich our policies have made Cheney's Big Oil friends! And Congress too. They're about to hand Verizon and AT&T immunity for gross violations of criminal and civil law, directed against us, their customers, the citizens of this country. And the 4th Estate is already part of the corporate empire. That leaves the Courts. The Republicans would like nothing more than to take that away from the unwashed masses as well.

Lawsuits are not ruining our society. It is the deep-seated, institutional corruption at the top of the wealth chain that is doing this. Over $1 trillion of our money has been wasted in Iraq, to make the Middle East safe for Big Oil to make their profits, profits they will not be sharing with us. War profiteers like Halliburton and Blackwater are swimming in cash. And Republicans would have us believe that one of the biggest evils we face is some little guy who wins a lawsuit.

Great game!

We think the outcome improbable because we just weren't giving the Giants their due. I'm a Cheesehead, but I have to admit that the Giants played very well in Lambeau and deserved to win. Too often we look at games like that one and come to the conclusion that the favorite laid an egg: Romo shouldn't have gone to Mexico with his celebrity girlfriend; McCarthy should have had his team practice outside in the cold instead of inside with frozen footballs. Etc. But maybe the Giants didn't catch any breaks. Maybe they just were very good.

PS: Manning MVP? Please. The Giants D-Line is the MVP, hands down. They don't play like that, they don't win. Period. You can't pick 4 players? Then pick one to honor them. Or pick Strahan. He was good too.