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Ever since W started tacking "Homeland" onto everything he could find, the presence of that word on ANYTHING has been a guarantee that that thing a) sucks, b) is unnecessary, and c) is a grave threat to civil liberties.

Thanks for the useful shorthand, W!



The civil liberty to which you refer in this comment is "the right to run a region electric grid provider free from government intervention". Hardly the stuff of Thomas Paine.


Is it really so unreasonable to suppose that politicians and bureaucrats will, when convenient, interpret this vague bill in such a way as to allow them carte blanche to regulate whatever they want?

One way I would improve the bill is to target a list of specific industries. They can amend that list later if gaps are identified. They can even have someone write up reports about which other industries ought to be on the list.


> when convenient, interpret this vague bill in such a way as to allow them carte blanche to regulate whatever they want?

Or, more dangerously, in ways their corporate sponsors find profitable?


Yawn. It's like you think nobody has ever made this point before. It's the most boring conceivable objection. Don't be boring.


It's boring because it's so very common. It's the boring risks that hurt the most people (e.g. heart disease). It's the boring risks that we ignore, making them the worst risks most of us will ever take.

You're a security guy. You of all people should appreciate this stuff.


Who or what is W? White house?


George W. Bush. I think people starting using W to differentiate him from his father George H. W. Bush.


Am I old fashioned in that I think it's disrespectful to call a president that?


Of all the ways that George W. Bush has been disrespected, calling him by his middle initial doesn't really register.

On the broader point, presidents are politicians, not gods. More to the point, they are our employees, and they should be treated with the dignity and respect appropriate to that position. You don't bow and scrape to your employees, but you don't call them rude names and spit at them either, even if you disagreed with the decision of the hiring committee to hire this particular candidate for the job.


Never confuse the person with the office he or she occupies. Also, as hugh3 pointed out, your president works for you (he was never my president), not the other way around. Do you have the same respect for your mayor? Or your building manager? It's the same job, with a different scope.




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