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What have you and your countrymen done for the world? I'd seriously like to know what country you even come from. For all the stupid shit we americans do, have you ever looked at the amount of financial aid we give to countries that have absolutely no strategic value?

Yes, I have. It's embarrassingly low. A little less than what Greece gives, about half of what Germany gives, about 1/5th of what Sweden gives.

There's some stats over at http://www.statisticbrain.com/countries-that-give-the-most-in-foreign-aid-statistics/

The US has a lot of good points. Foreign aid isn't one of them, and neither is consumption patterns.

(Oh, and I live in the US and am originally from Norway, if that makes a difference.)

What have you and your countrymen done for the world? I'd seriously like to know what country you even come from. For all the stupid shit we americans do, have you ever looked at the amount of financial aid we give to countries that have absolutely no strategic value?

Yes, I have. It's embarrassingly low. A little less than what Greece gives, about half of what Germany gives, about 1/5th of what Sweden gives.

There's some stats over at http://www.statisticbrain.com/countries-that-give-the-most-in-foreign-aid-statistics/

The US has a lot of good points. Foreign aid isn't one of them, and neither is consumption patterns.

(Oh, and I live in the US and am originally from Norway, if that makes a difference.)

Does the House GOP caucus have a minimum stupidity requirement?

While it is scary that a politician who has anything to do with transportation taxes is so vastly ignorant, there is another aspect which I find even more disturbing, which is not mentioned:

Biking is a very efficient way of getting exercise, as you can do it while going places. I hear that you might have a slight problem with people not being in shape in the U.S. :)

I wager that most Americans would be able to use a bike for at least some of their daily trips, such as going to the store or visiting friends (cue posters who live 70 km from the nearest store, and/or have no friends...). These statistics claim that 29% of Americans have a commute of 1-5 miles for instance, if you have any problems biking that distance you *really* need the exercise...

Taxing such activities in any way seems incredibly short-sighted. I'm surprised that American politicians would even consider any taxes that discourage people getting off their asses. I seriously doubt that Rep. Orcutt has omitted this out of stupidity, which makes this tax proposal more than a tad cynical.

We have troops in 25 countries (not counting territories), not "nearly ever country on earth."

You're a fucking idiot. Read the FIRST LIKE OF YOUR OWN FUCKING LINK:
The military of the United States is deployed in more than 150 countries around the world, with 173,929 of its 1,388,028[1] active-duty personnel serving outside the United States and its territories.

The average age for most military personnel is nearly 30. http://www.statisticbrain.com/demographics-of-active-duty-u-s-military/

The average age of DEATH of a US soldier was 25 in 2010. When you're killing off all the young ones, you kind of skew the "Average age" of employment now don't you?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/us/19dead.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The largest number of troops are stationed in first world Europe, South Korea and Japan.

Then we have the SECOND sentence in your own fucking link:
Most of these overseas personnel are deployed in combat zones in the Middle east, as part of the War on Terror.

Your facts are completely baseless and you can't even be bothered to read your own reference material. So I'm not quite sure what to say other than: Shut the fuck up.

The Lisa had a mouse and was pushed by Apple management due to the high price tag. The Apple IIe was much cheaper, had visicalc, supported a certain level of commodity hardware and wasn't pushed by Apple management.

The Apple IIe outsold the Lisa 20 to 1.

/subby, thank you for not claiming Apple invented the mouse and giving credit where credit is due....

Guns account for fully 2/3's all homicide weapons in the U.S. and have for the last 40 years.

Any idiot, woman or child can squeeze a trigger, and it's much harder to dodge a bullet than it is to fend off fatal injury from an attacker with a knife, blunt object of a gallon of gasoline. It's the idiots who are the main culprits. (Have you ever tried to ignite gasoline, it's harder than you'd think.)

  Can't remember exactly where it was mentioned, but in China, where access to guns are strictly controlled, a mad man with a knife went on a rampage in a public school. He stabbed 20 people before it was over. None of them died, and most of them were children.

Do you really want to play that game? How about we ban anything that can exceed 80mph. Hmmm? Almost a third involving speeding indeed.

I have a feeling that the reason for the increasing tuition is similar to the increasing medical prices. You've got a service that most people can't afford. The people who can afford it have to subsidize the people who can't. Then the prices go up because there are more people who can't afford it, but as the price goes up, more people can't afford it. So then the price goes up again.

If you REALLY want to make yourself sick, check out the list of the largest endowment funds. http://www.statisticbrain.com/college-endowment-rankings/
The highest endowment to student ratio is Princeton University with $1,857,040 per enrolled student. That means, assuming a modest 4% return on your investment, that the college is making $74,000 in interest per student from their endowment fund. Yet the average tuition is $38,650. How stuff like that can continue, I have no clue.

http://www.statisticbrain.com/welfare-statistics/

it would basically be an amazing reality show, with real, proper heroes

People said the same thing about the ISS. Sure people will tune in for the landing, but by the third day of watching rocks being analyzed, they will tune out. Everyone watched the Apollo 11 landing, but there was little interest in latter missions (except for 13, but only after it looked like they were going to die).

I wouldn't be surprised if the total revenue (advertisement, DVD/Blueray sales, merchandising) went a long way towards actually paying for the mission.

You need to get a grip on the costs involved. A one-way manned "go-to-Mars" mission (which the USA has ruled out) would cost more than $200B. A "go-and-return" mission would cost more than a trillion. Star Wars was the most profitable franchise in Hollywood history, and it has brought in less than 3% of that amount. This is leaving aside the question of whether we want the government copyrighting, trademarking and DRMing everything to do with space exploration.

Nobody is going to do that for a robotic rover.

Ask a kid about Curiosity, and you will usually get a meaningful answer. Tell the same kid that there are three people in space, and then ask him to name one of them. You will get a shrug.

Most successful? Someone at Blizzard [wikipedia.org] might not think the same way...

Yes, most successful

Diablo I sold 2.5 million million copies
Diablo 2 sold 4.2 million copies
Diablo 3 was not by any stretch of the imagination procedurally generated.

Minecraft has so far sold 11 million copies. Almost double what Diablo 1 and 2 ever did. And it's still selling very well.

Stats sourced from here and here

do those numbers take platform inflation into account? if there as many platforms as there are now and Diablo 2 came out today what would the adjusted numbers be?

Most successful? Someone at Blizzard [wikipedia.org] might not think the same way...

Yes, most successful

Diablo I sold 2.5 million million copies
Diablo 2 sold 4.2 million copies
Diablo 3 was not by any stretch of the imagination procedurally generated.

Minecraft has so far sold 11 million copies. Almost double what Diablo 1 and 2 ever did. And it's still selling very well.

Stats sourced from here and here