> Damn near a century of being limited to voice-over-landline under government regulation, and once regulations were lifted look what happened - internet, smartphones, ubiquitous mobile devices.

No, not correct at all. Cell phones are just a natural progression of technology. They have nothing to do with phones or government regulation or lack of it. Someone, invented a phone that allowed you to make a phone call on the golf course and it sold to be people who had money and wanted to be reached when not in the office. They just got smaller and adding the Internet to it is just a progression of the technology.
If anything, regulating the phone markets made cell phones possible since it allowed companies other than AT&T to get their own switching stations.

> Long distance calls were an expensive, big deal where everyone gathered once a week to talk to relatives for a short time.

Yes, and the government broke up AT&T and then long distance calls got a lot cheaper. You think AT&T would have ever lowered their price? Nope, the government forced them by splitting them up. You know, Regulation. Oh ya, that happened on Ronald Reagan's watch too.

> or shut down sex services like they did with phones using Title II

The government has never censored sex related business on phones. You can still call sex chat lines today, although there are not many of them. In fact, there are cases where the phone companies wanted to deny service to DRUG dealers but the government said they had to treat everyone equal, even people committing crimes.

What is with you Republicans that telling the truth or not lying is just impossible?

> were still in a recession

We're not in a recession and have not been for some time and unemployment is at 5.5%.

It would be a nightmare to check ID's for little junk pre-paid phones and SIM cards in the store. No one really cares anyways.

> The prospect of a secure, trust-free and cost-efficient way to buy directly, that's BTC's niche

I have that too, it's called a credit card. Seriously, Bitcoin brings nothing to the table in that space.

"That doesn't mean bitcoin is gaining steam as a currency used to buy goods. Since the government clampdown, the Chinese bitcoin market has matured into one that's focused on speculative trading, said Bobby Lee, CEO of BTC China."

If your currency is nothing more than a Get Rich Quick Scheme, then it is doomed to failure. The currency must fill a niche that can not be filled with paper cash (Or bank transfers and credit cards), whether that is get around currency controls, buy stuff on the dark web or just transfer money without fees. If a currency is nothing more than a get your friends together and buy low and sell high, then there is no use for the currency.

Bitcoin has a real problem ahead of it, a legitimate use.

> While a business shouldn't be allowed to not serve a segment of society, a business shouldn't be forced to contribute to something to which they object (on any grounds, but religious grounds for this argument).

Business are not people, so stop speaking of them as though they have Natural Rights like you or I. Businesses are artificial constructs of a society and thus have to follow the rules of that society. Businesses don't get to decide anything, they are allowed to function within a certain set of rules and one of those rules is they don't get to discriminate.

This is where I think the Right Wing and Republicans get it wrong when it comes to business. They look at it as, what is best for business is what will drive business, but in the case of California, it is what is best for employees is what drives business. Who in their right mind would want to work in a state where business can keep you from leaving by creating non-compete contracts? People with talent are going to go where they think it is best for them. In the case of California, weather and not being locked into a company is what is best for them.

On a side note, I left a company in California that was based out of New Mexico and they told me I could not work in IT for three years because of the non-compete I signed with them. I laughed at them and told them to come to California and try to enforce it. Needless to say, I kept working in California.

I don't see the point of this device. If you use a Stingray to catch a criminal, then can't the criminal simply request how the device works and once that is denied, the evidence used to catch the criminal is simply thrown out. The whole point is gather evidence but if that evidence is unusable, then the whole point of the device is gone.

All of the financial costs related to heroin use comes from enforcement and criminalization of heroin, hardly any of the damage comes from use of heroin.

All crime related to heroin addiction comes from the cost of getting heroin. If it was legal or could be purchased if the buyer could be proven to be an addict, then the cost would be lower and the addict would not need to steal. All of the violence from addiction comes from the ability to not get heroin legally.

OD'ing comes from heroin purity not being controlled. If all legally sold heroin was the same purity, then addicts would OD a lot less.

AID's and the spreading of disease of heroin users comes from sharing needles and lack of access to medicine. If heroin was legal or medically dispensed, then addicts could also have access to clean needles.

Addicts are forced to operate in the shadows and out of the eye of government and medical professionals. If you made heroin legal or medically accessible, then addicts could start working on getting clean or at least not getting worse.

> There .. fixed that for you. Don't believe what the media tells you, it's really not that bad over here.

Seriously, stop watching Fox News. Japan is insanely safe for adults and children and the crime rate over there is tiny compared to the US. 99% of Japan is safer than the anywhere in the US at anytime. The only place I would advise against walking alone is Roppongi in a back alley on a Sunday morning at 3:00a.

At the company I work at, I run several large high volume mass mailing servers that send million of messages a month (50 million last month). Here is what I recommend you do:

1) Get forward and reverse DNS setup and most importantly, the forward and reverse DNS information must match.

2) Set up and use DKIM for all outbound traffic.

3) Have the SPF information in your DNS records. Don't put your block of IP's in SPF record, just the one IP that you use for sending email. Make sure there is a "-all" in the records so that it makes it clear that all other email claiming to be you is discarded by other server.

4) You will need to setup Feed Back Loops and proper SWIP (If possible) contact information. You will need to go to the big 10 ISP's and submit the FBL information to them and get put on their White Lists. Don't lie to them, just tell them your personal email server that is having issues sending mail to them and you want to get on their White List. FBL's are usually for people who send high volumes of mail, include Newsletters and some "spammy" mail, but I find it helps regular mail servers if you set up FBL information.

Say it real slow to yourself, the US can't post troops in countries without a forces agreement. Iraq did not want to agree to an agreement that would have kept US troops in the country. This is not a Obama or Bush issue, it's a Iraqi government issue. When it is time to go, it is time to go.

Creationism is Religious subject and Evolution is a Scientific subject. You can't compare one with the other and Creationism does not belong in a science classroom since it does not pass being a working hypothesis. There is nothing to debate and pretending that Creationism is debatable subject in the context of Evolution is a insult to Science.

You don't decline a Peace Prize. You gain nothing by accepting it but you lose a lot by declining it.