Let's suppose for a minute that Rossi actually has a working device, and that he's been unfairly snubbed by the patent offices in major regions, and that he's trying to slowly build up his business from the bottom rather than get investors and go big quickly.

Where are his satisfied customers? According to the Wayback Machine he's had this thing on the market for three years. He was supposed to deliver 30-100 of them in 2012. Is there not one of his customers willing to say "I bought this thing and it works as advertised, and it's saved me a lot of money on my power bills?"

http://web.archive.org/web/201...

Health insurance company stocks are near all time highs. I don't think they're going out of business any time soon.

I will be patronizing places that allow a lower price for cash. I don't want to have to pay money to the credit card companies, I'd rather get the discount.

The actual legislation regulates "feeding devices" which covers both clips and magazines.

There are a number of services that will exchange Bitcoin for Amazon gift cards. This one does Amazon, Sears, Newegg, and a few others: http://www.btcbuy.info/

An assault *rifle,* by definition, has the capability of firing single shots per trigger pull, or full automatic when you hold the trigger down. The AR-15 is not an assault *rifle* because it does not allow for full automatic fire.

An assault *weapon* has no definition besides the 1994 law that basically invented the concept - and the AR15 in general does fall under this definition, except for the weapons manufactured between 1994 and 2004 that remove certain features (flash suppressor, bayonet lug, collapsible stock, maybe pistol grip) but shoot the same. The definition of assault *weapon*, per this law, is based on the presence of the features I mention that most people would not consider especially important to lethality.

With Mtgox (Japan-based), the largest exchange, you can use a service called Dwolla to transfer money from your US bank account to the exchange. They also accept bank transfers from many countries (but not the US.) There is a service called Liberty Reserve (Costa Rica-based.) You can also deposit cash at places like CVS and Walmart through a service called BitInstant.

Bitcoin exchanges don't accept Visa or Mastercard. Paypal specifically disallows its use for Bitcoin.

Not quite as useful as Amazon, but WordPress accepts Bitcoin. That's probably the closest to a household name that accepts it. http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/pay-another-way-bitcoin/

There is intrinsic value in a thing that can be used for making quick payments to anyone across the Internet, with low fees and no regulators standing in the way.

Everyone has widely different definitions of what they "need."

I can't believe I missed your sarcasm. Brilliant, sir.

If you can get prison time for "praising" the wrong country, I can't think of any better example of a totalitarian restriction on speech.

From the NBC/WSJ link you posted, this is the poll question they asked:

"There are many important issues in this presidential campaign. When it comes to deciding for whom you will vote for president, which one of the following is the single most important issue in deciding for whom you will vote? The economy. Social issues and values. Social Security and Medicare. Health care. The federal deficit. Foreign policy and the Middle East. Terrorism." If "all": "Well, if you had to choose the most important issue, which would you choose?"

Climate change, the drug war, and civil liberties aren't even options in the poll! You can't use a poll that doesn't allow these options to conclude that people don't care about these options.

It depends on whether he can exchange those Bitcoins for the same amount of Maker's Mark, at an exchange rate that takes into account the learning curve of Bitcoin and the recipient's calculation of the risk of holding Bitcoins.