Suzanne Said:

Based on your experiences, what career is best for me?

We Answered:

if you want to be rich go into law
but you might want to try the SWAT team

Mae Said:

B&A: I was recently inspired to join NaNoWriMo, help with decision...?

We Answered:

Hey :D

Hm, it's hard to pick. The first one looks really fun and interesting, the second is just as interesting but in a mystery way. I'll go for the first, it's something I'd love to see unfold.

But overall, I have an awesome way to help you decide. Get a coin, say what's head and what's tails, flip it, and you don't even need to look at what it landed on - do what you were hoping for whilst it was in the air ;)

~ JLT

Christine Said:

What do you think Parts of Mexican Border “Too Dangerous” To Patrol?

We Answered:

I live in Texas and it is very real. Just your last sentence alone says it all. Not enough funding and it is dangerous.

Alexander Said:

What would be the most useful second language to study?

We Answered:

There is some serious disparity among the career paths you listed. Sure, every young man's dream job is to be a secret agent (James Bond, anyone?) but in reality, that isn't very likely. Not to mention, his economic future will be significantly better as a programmer than as a government employee, which is what he'd have to be in order to pursue any espionage goals.

So, let's be realistic: the choice is between computer programmer and criminologist.

As others have pointed out, there is no benefit to a programmer in learning any other language. Take my word for it... I'm a polyglot computer programmer. So, if he enjoys language study (as I do) the best choice would be to study a language with practical application to an investigator.

The best choice if you're in the US is, undoubtedly, Spanish. He already knows Spanish, though, so we should pick something new... although I do recommend that he learn some advanced Spanish after completing high school.

Latin is dead, and should only be studied by doctors and scientists. The significance of French, Dutch, German, and Italian has been greatly reduced over the last decade... though French is still someone significant to any Americans living near French portions of Canada.

That leaves Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic, Russian, and Hindi. Hindi is useless, because anyone in India with global dealings will already know English. Russian has very little use in the US, and probably isn't practical unless he marries a Russian bride. Japanese has potential for use in business, but is of little use to your son unless he plans to do criminal investigation in areas of California that have Japanese mafia. (Yakuza)

Knowledge of Arabic would provide him opportunities to work in the Middle East for really big money... but it wouldn't be much use to a criminal investigator in the US unless he worked for the FBI investigating claims of terrorism.

So, probably the most useful choice is Mandarin. The odds of encountering Chinese people are reasonable in any city, thus making Mandarin at least marginally useful to a criminal investigator. And it could prove to be a useful skill in the IT field, especially if he worked for a company with an international presence.