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Perhaps Merriam-Webster can simply change the definition of ownership.

With definitions like that, Merriam-Webster can literally do anything. Get lost, go jump, sod off ... anything.

William Shatner is Canadian, but James T. Kirk is from Iowa. Sheesh, you never watched any Star Trek movies? Besides, Captain James Kirk is now captain of the USS Zumwalt, a navy destroyer that has a cloaking device! TFA: "When its begins missions, the Zumwalt will be the largest stealth ship in the Navy."

Sad thing is the whole 'treatment over punishment' thing was originally an American system that other countries copied because it was working fairly well, but then the US abandoned it favor of righteous suffering.

Because it was found that running prisons for profit was a fine free market idea.

The only problem of course, is that for profit institutions must service the stockholders. This means that there must be an increase in profit every quarter.

This means that you have to regularly find ways to put more people in prison.

The amazing thing is that what I wrote is completely batshit insane, that there is a model that demands more people be declared criminals in order to service a company.

Insane, yes, but here is just one example:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/23/pennsylvania.corrupt.judges/index.html?_s=PM:CRIME

These fine upstanding Judges recieved kickbacks fro sending as many young people to juvie as possible, for crimes that would have normally ended up with a warning, or at worst some public service.

I suspect it's going to be the amount of people turned away from voting because of all these daft ID voter rules. .... I really think it'll be the mass disenfranchisement of a huge % of the US citizens at the next big election.

It doesn't look like there is a problem with that.

Texas voter ID law didn't suppress vote

...it'll take that sharp focused event that'll be the camel back breaker ...

Maybe we've found one.

Calif. Insurance Commissioner: More Than 1M Californians Having Insurance Cancelled Due To ACA

Forbes: White House Predicted in 2010 That 93 Million Would Lose Their Health Plans Under ObamaCare

Troubled HealthCare.gov unlikely to work fully by end of November

You know, people have been predicting that we will exceed the carrying capacity of the earth, and be forced to put more marginal land under the plow since Thomas Malthus, about two hundred years ago. Yet we are using LESS land these days, growing more food, and growing it cheaper.

Extrapolate the earth's population growthand it reaches to infinity, and approaching it faster and faster. You think the earth's (or the Universe's) resources are infinite? Would you admit there was a limit when the entire mass of the Universe has been turned into human biomatter? From where I am, it looks like Malthus's prediction is on course. As for using less land, that seems pretty unlikely, considering that around 1813 the mid-west of the USA and most of South America was natural prairie, now farmed.

You also say nothing about the quality of life. I don't want to live in a pod like some Japanese do, with nowhere to go for peace and quiet. Fine if you like to spend all your time in crowded parties; I don't.

http://money.cnn.com/2013/11/06/news/economy/minimum-wage-seatac-new-jersey/

You could have at least posted the link. Boy oh boy! Are those states fucked. Mass exodus, watch it come! Sure sucks to run a business in those states. Run like hell while you still can!

Quite a bold statement that has no real basis in reality:

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/14/high-iq-linked-to-drug-use/

Let's see, doing illegal drugs involves:

Having to deal with shady types to purchase drugs.
You'll have less money to spend on other things (for example, taking a romantic interest on dates).
Potential health risks due to tainted/contaminated/incorrect product.
Reduced job opportunities due to drug testing policies.
Legal risks that can destroy/limit your career and make relationships more difficult.

Clearly, IQ tests are missing something - because there's a lot more risk than reward when it comes to doing illegal drugs. Unless, higher IQ has some kind of correlation with self-destructive behaviors. Someone should look into that...

Quite a bold statement that has no real basis in reality:

http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/14/high-iq-linked-to-drug-use/

Perhaps it is because the film is untruthful. http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/06/opinion/pandora-nuclear-energy-opinion-cavanagh-cochran/

This car is chump change for Middle Eastern royalty than can afford a $600 million dollar yacht like this one. The operation and maintenance costs on this yacht alone are estimated to be $60 million/year.

I do agree with you though, this money could be better spent.

FEAR: feeling of anxiety: an unpleasant feeling of anxiety or apprehension caused by the presence or anticipation of danger

The family of the victims of various shootings at the hands of the mentally ill would beg to differ with you as to something perceived to be a danger, and something that kills your family. There are already gun control laws, and the 2nd amendment doesn't guarantee unrestricted access to any weapons a citizen might want. There are already restrictions on automatic weapons, as well as a wide range of military grade weapons, explosives, poisons, WMD's, etc. There are also restrictions on who can gain access to weapons based on criminal history, as well as location. Not one single bill being seriously discussed in congress was taking away anyone's guns, as in every case, currently owned guns were grandfathered in. The vast majority of such legislation was aimed more at sensible background checks. Something even the NRA used to support before they were against it.

Can you cite any sources whatsoever as to the cost of shutting down a park as opposed to keeping it open? Unless you handle the billing for the various public park departments, you are just parroting talking points you read online or heard on the 'news'. You are also suggesting that they just leave these parks open to the public, which would be like opening the door to your home, and going on vacation for a month, and hoping everyone was on their best behavior. The Fed is legally required to shut down any services that are payed for with discretionary funds when they are no longer legally authorized to pay for such parks to remain open. Period, end of statement. The fact that you are more concerned about some park begin shut down, rather than people being denied food, social services, life saving medicines through various studies, etc, speaks volumes about your priorities.

No one is 'ignoring' the debt ceiling, and it has been dropping steadily for the last few years. In fact, it's dropping faster than it has since the 1950's. This is probably something you might be aware of if you weren't solidly wrapped up in your fear based news network.

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/22/news/economy/deficits/index.html
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-debt-load-falling-at-fastest-pace-since-1950s-2012-06-08

Just as an FYI, Benghazi was a TERRORIST ATTACK, not a 'scandal'.

because you're ignoring the core problem he's discussing because he didn't name it: idle capacity. The wealthiest Americans have 40% of their net worth in cash. They're not investing. They're grabbing all the wealth and grinding the US economy to a halt. If anyone calls them on this and suggests we use the gov't to address the idle economy they're shouted down with cries of "Theif!" and "Deficits!".

Basically, we have enormous idle capacity in our economy and it's getting worse because we're racing to give ownership of everything to an increasingly small number of people, and these people can't possible use that idle capacity. No matter how greedy you are there's only so many hours in the day to buy stuff with...

Interesting you bring up Issa's credibility. Here's an article suggesting Issa may be cherry-picking document releases to mislead:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/08/house-dem-accuses-issa-of-selectively-leaking-obamacare-documents

It happens all the time. Kids are suspended from school for making a "gun" with their fingers, playing with a plastic see-through water pistol, or having any item that looks like a gun or has picture of a gun on it, even if it's barely bigger than a quarter ( http://www.bizpacreview.com/2013/09/29/tiny-toy-gun-key-chain-cause-of-students-suspension-84337 ). Even saying the word gun in the contest of Hello Kitty "bubble gun" gets a 5 year old girl suspended for 10 days ( http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/21/us/pennsylvania-girl-suspended ). Its not about kids safety, it's about stigmatizing guns and gun owners.

===
Bravo to the policy of stigmatizing guns. Perhaps in 25 years, the USA will join the world in sharing common rules about gun ownership. Guns for hunting, yes, guns for sports (only at gun clubs), personal ownership? No. -- No need.

It happens all the time. Kids are suspended from school for making a "gun" with their fingers, playing with a plastic see-through water pistol, or having any item that looks like a gun or has picture of a gun on it, even if it's barely bigger than a quarter ( http://www.bizpacreview.com/2013/09/29/tiny-toy-gun-key-chain-cause-of-students-suspension-84337 ). Even saying the word gun in the contest of Hello Kitty "bubble gun" gets a 5 year old girl suspended for 10 days ( http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/21/us/pennsylvania-girl-suspended ). Its not about kids safety, it's about stigmatizing guns and gun owners.

At that point (if you're "into" that stuff), doing this becomes merely thought crime. I haven't done the research into whether this increases or reduces the risk of actually physical incidents (I hope it would reduce the drive for gratification in the illegal ways drastically) but it could be a boon for a host of people and move a lot of law enforcement activity to other exploitation of humans.

I think this is the crux of the issue and many will argue that it will escalate in the same way as an addiction might, that more and more is needed for a "fix". I'm sure there is a psychological term for it and it'll be the focus of many arguments.

Just look at this sick bastard. It started off with imagery and "thought crimes", then for this guy it turned more real. He started getting movies, talking to others, plotting, buying equipment. That's not saying that every person will turn out to be the same kind of nutjob, there's bound to be folks out there that are just plain curious. I'd lean toward escalation, it starts with one cigarette, ends in 2-packs a day. A crime is a crime, but exactly where do you draw that line? Is it that first communication? is it when money is brought up? is it when certain words are exchanged? is it when a time/place are set up?

You realize that the last major threats on aircraft that got by TSA were all stopped by the passengers? That any major event that a shooter has gone nuts and started killing people within an armed area were a maximum 1 to 2 people? That shooters have specifically targeted areas with limited access to firearms to maximize the amount of damage they can do before being stopped?

Have you ever heard of a shootout at an NRA convention? Mass killing in a gun store? A hijacking of a military transport?

You are joking right? You're not just being ignorant or stupid?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Navy_Yard_shooting
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/24/21119400-two-wounded-in-shooting-at-tennessee-armory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hood_shooting
http://edition.cnn.com/US/9510/sniper/am/

You are joking right? You're not just being ignorant or stupid?

The only time military personnel are allowed to posses firearms while on a base is for training purposes (even then may or may not have ammo), MPs/guards while ON DUTY (they must surrender their weapon and ammo to the armory when going off duty), married personnel (after filing required paperwork and getting permission) living on base within their own home, or checking the (even privately owned) weapon in or out of the armory to bring it on or off base. In other words, military bases inside the US are *effectively* gun free zones and have been for about 20 years thanks to Bush 41. When Alexis went on his spree, there may have been a total of 13 people on the entire base of 13,000 carrying a firearm (including Alexis). Probably about the same odds James Holmes had doing the same crap in a theater and encountering an off duty police officer that ignored the "No Guns" sign. That didn't happen, just talking about the odds... Basically chance in hell of encountering significant opposition. The odds in many places are in the favor of the psychopath. They only have to be rational for about 5 minutes to realize that, and it's time that is universally understood.

You realize that the last major threats on aircraft that got by TSA were all stopped by the passengers? That any major event that a shooter has gone nuts and started killing people within an armed area were a maximum 1 to 2 people? That shooters have specifically targeted areas with limited access to firearms to maximize the amount of damage they can do before being stopped?

Have you ever heard of a shootout at an NRA convention? Mass killing in a gun store? A hijacking of a military transport?

You are joking right? You're not just being ignorant or stupid?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Navy_Yard_shooting
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/24/21119400-two-wounded-in-shooting-at-tennessee-armory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hood_shooting
http://edition.cnn.com/US/9510/sniper/am/

I think this could be a hoax. It's not a scientific paper, not in a peer-reviewed journal's letter section. It appears via a Google circles posting from Kerry Emanuel who is a well-known, though partially reformed, climate denier. It looks like the Google+ account the letter is published in was just created. Plus, the facts are either skimpy & wrong. Saying we cannot ramp up solar & wind power fast enough, but can ramp up nuclear, is directly in opposition to what's happening. Solar installations are going up by double-digit percentage points each year, and meanwhile we haven't had a new nuclear power plant in over 40 years. The only pair that is underway (which is pictured in the Yahoo! story) is years from completion. There are only 19 permit applications active for new nukes in the US, and the power industry (which is notoriously risk-averse) has for decades shied away from their huge liability and expense.

neither Obama nor anyone in his immediate circle has any experience as a, well, Executive... The opposition were crying about this point in 2008 — Obama never ran anything (except for a small failed charity)

The same argument could be made about many (most?) people, including George W Bush. Here's a 1999 CNN article about Bush as Businessman that concludes with:

So Bush the businessman did prosper. But not by his bootstraps -- with help from wealthy friends and taxpayer subsidies.

In many cases, his companies, co-investors and taxpayers came out much worse for working with him.

They can just hang out around the barge, and pass out tickets in the barge parking lot!

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/30/tech/mobile/google-glass-driving-ticket/

Thanks for the great reply. PRT ideas are really cool (good fictional example is in Logan's Run). Wish I had more time to provide a more detailed reply. But essentially, I think some of these issues are points of uncertainty.

How much would electric cars costs go down with mass production and a build-out of recharging infrastructure? How much safer would the cars be with just a bit more research and testing if there was a trillion dollar initiative (on the order of the Interstate Highway initiative of the 1950s)? How soon would be have fusion energy to power these cars with another trillion dollar initiative (a slashdot article a while back said we were US$80 billion away)? If we can spend trillions on Iraq (including future obligations like to care for injured soldiers), and trillions for wall street bailouts, and trillions for "quantiative easing" as mostly a gift to the banks, shouldn't be able to put a couple trillion into upgrading the US transportation system which is still at the core of US commerce and defense? How many varieties of vehicles do people really want? How much of the US military is ostensibly justified to protect supplies of oil? How much of the current US military posture is obsolete or ironic (i.e. expensive aircraft carriers perhaps being sitting ducks for either submarines or missiles, tanks being vulnerable to cheap drones, 3D-printed military robotics used to fight over economic ideas like capitalism that are falling apart due to 3D printer and advanced robotics eliminating the value of most human labor, etc.)? Could a trillion dollars invested in battery research lead to major breakthroughs? Would human behavior change some with a greater sense of abundance? Probably no one knows all these answers for sure, so fertile ground for lots of discussion.

BTW, I'd be willing to spend more on "defense" as long as it was well spent; I feel the current US defense spending is ineffective ("planning to refight the last war" etc.); to my mind, making the US transportation system safer, more resilient, and more self-reliant is an example of improving the intrinsic security of the USA (including saving 30,000 lives and perhaps 10X that serious injuries per year). And that's just the USA:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/28/opinion/sutter-road-deaths/
"The ongoing Pulitzer project highlights sobering facts: Roads kill 1.24 million people each year, and by 2030, that annual number is expected to jump to 3.6 million."

The original justification for the Interstate Highway system was "defense" (including to land airplanes):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System
"The Interstate Highway System gained a champion in President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was influenced by his experiences as a young Army officer crossing the country in the 1919 Army Convoy on the Lincoln Highway, the first road across America. Eisenhower gained an appreciation of the Reichsautobahn system, the first "national" implementation of modern Germany's Autobahn network as a necessary component of a national defense system while he was serving as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II.[9] He recognized that the proposed system would also provide key ground transport routes for military supplies and troop deployments in case of an emergency or foreign invasion."

So, how about a "war on traffic fatalities"? :-)

"[...] post-9/11 federal spending on homeland security exceeds $790 billion. That's larger than TARP and, when adjusted for inflation, the New Deal." And that is just one random mainstream media source ... but you get the point.

But the majority of people claim to be a good driver even if they're not. Pardon me for not having a purely scientific source for this, but CNN will have to do: http://www.cnn.com/2011/08/22/living/good-bad-drivers/

For example: Not one word about the anti-NSA protests in US media. Still.

Your news gathering skills are....poor to say the least.

USA Today: Anti-NSA rally attracts thousands to march in Washington http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/26/nsa-dc-rally/3241417/

Huffington Post: NSA 'Stop Watching Us' Protest Draws Thousands In Washington http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/26/nsa-stop-watching-us_n_4166640.html

US News and Word Report: Edward Snowden Endorses D.C. Protest Against NSA in Rare Public Statement http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/10/24/edward-snowden-endorses-dc-protest-against-nsa-in-rare-public-statement

Christian Science Monitor: NSA Washington: March against surveillance and a call from Edward Snowden http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2013/1026/NSA-Washington-March-against-surveillance-and-a-call-from-Edward-Snowden-photos

CNN: Anti-NSA rally targets Washington http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/26/anti-nsa-rally-targets-washington/

Fox News: Hundreds rally in DC to protest NSA http://video.foxnews.com/v/2772548586001/hundreds-rally-in-dc-to-protest-nsa/

NBC News: Hundreds march at anti-NSA rally in DC http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/53383405

CBS News: Protesters March For Investigation Into Mass NSA Spying http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2013/10/26/protesters-march-for-investigation-into-mass-nsa-spying/

ABC News: NSA Spying Threatens to Hamper US Foreign Policy http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/nsa-spying-threatens-hamper-us-foreign-policy-20689770

Washington Post: Techies concerned over NSA surveillance will march in D.C., proclaiming ‘Stop Watching Us’ http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/techies-concerned-over-nsa-surveillance-will-march-in-dc-proclaiming-stop-watching-us/2013/10/25/5bedb546-3da7-11e3-b7ba-503fb5822c3e_story.html

This is where I get tired of pasting, but I assure you the list goes on and on.

From Hans Blix
Transcript

Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance – not even today – of the disarmament, which was demanded of it and which it needs to carry out to win the confidence of the world and to live in peace.

This is not the report someone would expect from a UN inspector dealing with a country that is complying.
UN Resolution 1441

This is the SECOND time on this one story I've called you out for outright lying.

There are more lines of code in Healthcare.gov (500m!) than Google Chrome, the Linux kernel, XP, Facebook, Mac OS, and the Debian 5 packages combined:

http://www.alexmarchant.com/blog/2013/10/22/healthcare-dot-gov-lines-of-code-comparison.html

Windows 8 supposed has 80m lines of code:
http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/23/technology/obamacare-website-fix/

It would take a miracle of computing programming and program management that no governmental program has ever accomplished to get this epic cluster f*ck fixed in 2-3 months.

If they actually want it to work, it should be taken out behind the shed, shot in the head, hung, drawn, quartered, burned, and the ashes scattered to the four winds. And then everyone starts over. And then take 2 years (minimum) to recode it again with an almost entirely new team. But that's not going to happen. They're going to try and band-aid it, and it won't work.

So things are going to get interesting. It's unfixable in a politically acceptable way for the Democrats and the Obama administration.

You wouldn't happen to work for Microsoft would you? It seems like I've heard this before. . .

I've been using the new versions since they came out. They have more features than the previous versions, not fewer. As far as I can tell, there's no reason to use Office anymore, and I doubt I will. And from the sounds of it, the decision makers at Microsoft are very scared of this update. They are doing everything they can to devalue it.

You have a point about companies requiring an incentive to invest, but last time I checked, margins for these enormous cable companies is about 8% -- not a bad ROI at all. Also, your "basic economics" argument is fairly blind in that it relies on economics to solve every problem. If we depended on "basic economics" for all of our progress, the Internet would probably never have been invented in the first place. It was developed by ARPA which, as a military research agency, is not governed or funded by "basic economics" but rather by cold war paranoia.

Occasionally, fixing a problem or making progress requires something that doesn't make sense in terms of "basic economics."

But if you want to beat the economics drum, consider the South Korean model wherein the infrastructure is funded by the government and shared by private enterprises that rent the infrastructure and compete on service and performance aspects rather than infrastructure related ones. I'd be willing to bet the margins are lower for these companies, but I suspect that blazing fast internet is much cheaper there. Not as cushy for the providers perhaps, but certainly better for the broadband customers and probably the overall economy as well.

if you want a cell phone you get a cap even with 'unlimited' access there is a fee for using tethering as they want that phone id. and most people are pissy about uing cell bandwith and always nag for the wifi password on the broadband in houses.

T-mobile Simple Choice is moving things back towards the "good" side. They don't charge overage [1], they just drop your data rate after your cap is hit. Every line on a family plan gets it's own 500MB to start, and can go to 2GB or 5GB for $10 or $20 respectively.

AND every single line has tethering.

I've never had a such a low stress mobile carrier relationship than with T-Mobile. No more worrying about data usage or minutes (I did for the first couple of months, but now just don't care - I verify the monthly bill is the same and smile). I don't even have to worry about international data or texts - it's all covered for subscribers [2]. No Gouging.

VZ and AT&T need to take a long walk off a short plank.

[1] f*ucking AT&T charged my wife overage for numerous months last year b/c some app kept pushing her usage over the measly 200MB she had. We could never find the culprit.
[2] http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/10/technology/mobile/tmobile-roaming-charges/

even if such a knife got past security, anyone who tried to take over a plane using it would immediately get jumped by - probably all - the passengers

You know, I've heard this line of reasoning a couple of times and I'm not quite sure it holds up. I think that most people in that sort of situation wouldn't want to be cut with a pocket knife regardless of the implied threat of the guy crashing the plane into a building. Some people would probably attack the guy with the knife, but I don't think that subset of the population would have increased drastically post-9/11.

Keep in mind that al-Qaeda sent teams of five for each of the planes they hijacked. They specifically brought extra folks on board to handle a passenger upset like a passenger tackling the first terrorist that brandished his knife. Although I've not read the 9/11 Commission report in its entirety, I would suspect that most of the hijackers remained seated to retain the element of surprise in such a situation. Given that the hijackers rehearsed their attack many times over, I doubt that a post-9/11 group of passengers would fare much better.

They already do:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/07/travel/window-aisle-seat-charge/

Turning documents over to journalists, or anybody employed in any other profession, does not make them magically uninterceptable, unreadable, or unposessable by Russians, Chinese, or anybody else. He has no control over the distribution after he hands it off to anybody, and the people who have the stuff might not even know if someone else is reading it.

That is assuming that he is even telling the truth now after spending a long time lying so that he could get access to the documents. Lies about his adventure continued when the Russians said they didn't know he was coming when he in fact had a birthday party at the Russian embassy in Hong Kong prior to his departure, and made arrangements there. When he got to Russia, an FSB spokesman was speaking for him. Then there is this gem: "(On June 23 Izvestia, a [formerly] state-owned Russian newspaper, wrote that the Kremlin and its intelligence services collaborated with Wikileaks to help Snowden escape from Hong Kong.)" ... It looks to me that there is far more going on than most people want to believe.

Unlikely, but not by much...Yahoo beats Google in traffic for first time since 2011.

First of all, according to nonpartisan estimates, the ACA will reduce the deficit

Umm, I'll believe it when I see it. So far, it's added over 1.7 trillion in spending and put a severe crimp on business with new costs and regulations (such as mandatory electronic requirements). Or are you one of those "it's budget neutral" morons, simply because they embedded new taxes in it to "pay for it"? Believe it or not "new taxes + more spending + a failure to fix real spending growth problems" can very easily cause long term deleterious effects (some nonpartisan sources say the current continued economic malaise is a partial result of ACA).

If that happens, how could we possibly solve such a problem? Could it be that we could...pass a law raising taxes?

We already did that. Many times. Once during the Obamacare passage. Another time in December, on "rich" people. And as much as you like to believe that we can just endlessly raise taxes to solve our problems, it does actually have an effect on the economy.

From their current historically low levels, particularly as a fraction of GDP? And particularly on the super-wealthy?

Highly misleading. Rates on the "super wealthy" are far from historically low. The only people currently benefiting from historically low taxes are the poor. Taxes on everybody else are around "average" historical values: http://www.factcheck.org/2012/07/tax-facts-lowest-rates-in-30-years/ (and that article was before the December tax hike)

And since you aren't advocating raising taxes on everyone (perish the thought), instead of only on the people you envy, I'm afraid your statement is false. Additionally, raising taxes on the super-wealthy can't possibly bring in enough money to cover our government's level of spending (again, per unbiased sources: http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/01/news/economy/income_tax_deficit/)

If I'm reading you right, what you're actually saying is that the ACA will cost money to implement,

That isn't a "maybe", that's a fact. And it's predicted cost is beyond estimates (with most of the heavy spending not even beginning until 2014). The belief that it's going to be a net deficit savings requires not only outright lies that try to use tax increases as "savings" but also lots of speculation (since it takes into account a metric ton of complete unknowns and tries to use them as "cost savings"): http://useconomy.about.com/od/healthcarereform/a/Cost-of-Obamacare.htm

If you were 100% genuine about discussing the "cost" of something, that discussion should be held in a vacuum (namely, what I spend on the program vs what costs the program reduces). You can't chalk in additional revenue from additional taxes and try to pretend the program isn't costing 1.7 trillion in additional spending. At best, the net effect of the program is "1.7 trillion in spending minus the cost savings of the four things it's actually reducing: drug subsidies to wealthy/Hospital DSH Payments/Medicare Payments/Medicare Advantage Payments". Everything else is smoke and mirrors. Oh, and the net effect IS a deficit increase, based on those numbers. And it's a loss that we believe does nothing to address the real problem of high healthcare costs, and will likely continue to balloon in costs.

Doing stuff for people costs money. Helping poor people costs money.

And we'd love to see healthcare reform, reform that would actually help people. ACA does not. It passes the buck, shifts around costs, and tries to hide its massive spending behind tax increases. In reality, nothing has been don

Al Qaida

The name comes from the Arabic noun q'idah, which means foundation or basis, and can also refer to a military base. The initial al- is the Arabic definite article the, hence the base.[70]

Bin Laden explained the origin of the term in a videotaped interview with Al Jazeera journalist Tayseer Alouni in October 2001:

The name 'al-Qaeda' was established a long time ago by mere chance. The late Abu Ebeida El-Banashiri established the training camps for our mujahedeen against Russia's terrorism. We used to call the training camp al-Qaeda. The name stayed.[71]

Transcript of Bin Laden's October interview

BIN LADEN: This has nothing to do with this poor servant of God, nor with the al Qaeda organization. We are the children of an Islamic nation whose leader is Mohammed.

We have one religion, one God, one book, one prophet, one nation. Our book teaches us to be brothers of a faith. All the Muslims are brothers. The name "al Qaeda" was established a long time ago by mere chance. The late Abu Ebeida El-Banashiri established the training camps for our mujahedeen against Russia's terrorism. We used to call the training camp al Qaeda [meaning "the base" in English]. And the name stayed. We speak about the conscience of the nation; we are the sons of the nation. We brothers in Islam from the Middle East, Philippines, Malaysia, India, Pakistan and as far as Mauritania.

He didn't say that. He said don't do something they won't like.

"They" could be any individual in a position of power abusing his authority for personal reasons, sort of like those NSA agents spying on their crushes. It's impossible for someone to avoid that because their actions are not based on the laws and protocols they are supposed to be following.

China is doing a great job of accumulating it's own massive debt. At some point it will probably turn into a race to see who gets there first although I'd give China the edge because I think their economy is not sustainable. For at least a decade some have suggested that China has been exaggerating it's economic growth and from what I know I tend to believe it. Sure things are great, for a very small subset of the population. Meanwhile the majority is exploited in the name of economic success.

And this is different from the US, how? Top CEO's earn 1000's of times what their exploited workers make:

$378 million for 2011, Apple's Tim Cook takes the cake for the highest Fortune 50 CEO-to-typical-worker pay ratio. Indeed, it takes 6,258 typical Apple worker salaries to match Cook's total pay..

The US is in the difficult position that they're the world's military.

And how did that come to be? By lying to their citizens, exploiting them and corrupting the government officials that were suppose to be protecting our interests.

China may not have doodoo that does not smell, but that doesn't mean they don't make valid points at times.

Almost all science fiction in the history of science fiction goes so far as to flat out make up extra laws of physics to keep the story going. There are even famous hard sci-fi novels that implement impossible technologies for the sake of the plot. Science fiction is fantasy, consequently the science itself is often fictional. In the face of that, a few minor transgressions are nothing and there was no way to move the plot along in an entertaining Hollywood style fashion without these mistakes. This is an average movie for average people, as are most and we should be glad that average people find space interesting enough to see the movie at all.

Can we please stop fact-checking the movies?

Well... Since President Obama has reduced the country's deficit by $4.3 TRILLION , I can forgive him for not having clairvoyance.

But if you want to join all the people blaming President Obama for everything that goes wrong, go right ahead. Personally, I find it rather entertaining.

I'm pretty sure that 2.5% of my income will more than cover any emergency room visits I'll be making in the long run.

Average cost of a heart attack is one million dollars. If that's "more than covered" by 2.5% of your income-- well, I envy you.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505146_162-39940799/how-much-would-a-heart-attack-cost-you/

Especially as they'll be paid out of my credit card.

Yep, that's how people do it-- they charge medical care on credit cards, and then go bankrupt. 60% of American bankruptcies are due to medical expanses.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/05/bankruptcy.medical.bills/

We all end up paying, of course.

You admit that you didn't check it, so how the hell would you know?

I admit that I hadn't previously seen it, but I did check it. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1301/23/se.01.html

You are wrong. Her testimony in no way indicated any wrongdoing. The quip that made it in the news was an admonition from a freshman Senator who was trying to bait her that she replied in kind to.

The biggest possible scandal that ANY potential Presidential candidate has ever been involved in, and you wonder why it matters?

Yeah, like George Bush committing treason at least twice that we know of (both material aid to the Iranians who were enemies of the US at the time). Oh no, that gets no coverage, does it?

It goes way back. Ross Perot summed it up in an interview with Fortune magazine back in the 80's.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1988/02/15/70199/

An excellent read. One excerpt....

"We've got to nuke the GM system. We've got to throw away Sloan's book ((My Years With General Motors, former chairman Alfred P. Sloan Jr.'s description of GM's management system)). It's like the Old Testament -- frozen thousands of years ago. We still believe that we can find the right page and paragraph to give us the answer to any question we have today. When you get down to the guys who actually have their hands on things, they know what to do. They can design, engineer, and build the best products in the world. My question is: Why haven't we unleashed their potential? The answer is: the General Motors system. It's like a blanket of fog that keeps these people from doing what they know needs to be done. I come from an environment where, if you see a snake, you kill it. At GM, if you see a snake, the first thing you do is go hire a consultant on snakes. Then you get a committee on snakes, and then you discuss it for a couple of years. The most likely course of action is -- nothing."

I would expect these agencies to produce "evidence" that denigrates his position, and I would not at first glance accept it.

Do you take Snowden at his word? Snowden to newspaper: I took contractor job to gather evidence

That means he took the job under false pretenses, he both lied to get the job, and continued lying while he was working. He certainly wouldn't have gotten the job if he had told them he wanted it to steal secrets, would he? Nor would he have been granted the access he was given if he had told them he wanted to steal secrets.

And who was speaking for Snowden in Russia?

Russian attorney Anatoly Kucherena — who also happens to be the head of public council for the Federal Security Service (FSB)* — has announced that Edward Snowden may leave the Moscow airport on Wednesday. -- ...Russian Intelligence Speaks For Edward Snowden

Snowden had his birthday party at the Russian embassy in Hong Kong and made arrangements with them for his trip to Russia. This connection was lied about at multiple levels, and multiple times. Why?

I'm sure he'll enjoy his new homeland.

So, I think the answer to your question (What is really going on? ) is pretty clear, but not one you or most people here will accept.

*Federal Security Service (FSB) took the place of the old KGB - Committee for State Security, the Soviet secret police that was responsible for keeping the Soviet Communist Party in power.

You're the one that needs a "citation needed" -- where do you people come up with this stupid shit about minority preferences? The federal law bans such practices, and has ever since Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964.

Supreme Court heard a case on it and didn't rule that it was illegal. Not sure why you are claiming something like affirmative action doesn't exist.

Department of Labor has rules to enforce affirmative action.

I'm guessing you are intentionally lying to make a point and were hoping that no one questioned you on it.

Reposted

Private insurance still lets you choose. You can change and shop around, which my company does every few years. When we get to single payer, are you going to fire the government, your sole source of health coverage when you're unsatisfied with your coverage or service? The hundreds of thousands of service denials from Medicare and the VA should wise you up, but I can understand if that never happens.

Or maybe ask the increasing number of brits who are pulling their own teeth if their single-payer system is working for them.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/10/15/england.dentists/index.html

Single payer doesn't eliminate the problem, and it manages to add another deficit-increasing entitlement to the mix.

Apparently, this crime is more serious than the torture and murder of a five year old, which only got 8 years and 600 lashes: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/07/world/meast/saudi-arabia-girl-death/index.html?sr=sharebar_facebook

It looks like the personnel necessary for safety and immediate response are still on the job.

Shutdown furloughs about to hit nuclear safety agency

The 300 essential personnel who would stay on include about 150 so-called "resident inspectors." They serve as the NRC's eyes and ears at nuclear plants. They also include employees who support emergency response, investigators, a skeleton management team, the five NRC commissioners and a few commission staff members, the NRC said.

The retained group would also include employees who support emergency response, investigators, a skeleton management team, the five NRC commissioners and a few commission staff members, the NRC said.

Approximately 83% of government employees are still at work, so why is the NRC being hit so hard?

I think there is still an interesting question of how much of this is "shutdown theater" to squeeze the public as has been occurring with the Park Service. Although there has been an issue with it in the past, the current administration seems to have kicked it up a level.

Good riddance. These infotainment systems have historically been buggy and lead to animosity misdirected at the auto manufacturer rather than the software provider. Witness the story of Ford. On the rebound after the auto-crisis of 2007, Ford quality grew by leaps and bounds, outpacing the industry in 2008, and resulting in a top-5 JD Power and Associates ranking in 2009. That year, Ford added Microsoft SYNC to their vehicles and called it "MyFordTouch." The interface was so buggy and inconsistent that it lead to Ford dropping from number 5 in JD Power's quality 2010 quality rankings (despite no major overhalls and no new engines that year), to number 23 a year later, and then all the way to 33rd this year. Now Ford customers have launched a class-action lawsuit against Ford.

The sooner auto manufacturers standardize on a infotainment system, the better. The fact that this is open-source and based on Linux (specifically, Tizen) makes it even more likely that updates will be provided many years down the road. (even if not by the manufacturers themselves, by the community; think Cyanogenmod). This makes cars less like disposable toys and more worthy of being the second-largest expense that most households make.

Put that 401k on Red, it's a sure thing!
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Oooh! Sorry, that's how it goes. The House (and Senate) never loses.
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Place your bets... C'mon, grannie needs a new pension!