Most people "wish" for things and sit on the sidelines.

And for such people the answer to my question is: themselves.

Couldn't the same argument be made that a person of the Earth made enough money to visit the ISS, what's your excuse for not having that much money?

An old saying (by Confucius, I think) goes like this: "It is a shame to be rich in a poorly-governed country. It is also a shame to be poor in a well-governed one."

In most cases, public utilities have a much lower cost structure than private enterprise.

Citations?

But what they don't want is to have lower cost providers step in and pick off the marginal territories while they are holding them back.

Do you have any proof to this conspiracy theory?

Nobody (in private business) likes to maintain infrastructure, keep the snow plowed and potholes fixed. But that's what municipalities are good for.

Actually, no, they are pretty bad it — and the bigger the city, the worse they are.

This is why Comcast and TWC wan to merge.

The would-be merger has no relevance to the situation — thanks to the previous governmental idiocy of allowing monopolies in cable TV, the two companies do not serve the same markets anywhere in the nation.

In some states, building municipal broadband is prohibited altogether.

And a good thing that is. If it were a good idea — something enough people want bad enough to be willing to pay for it — it would not have required tax monies.

I wish, the same principle (hi, Mr. Okkam), were applied more often.

It sounds like you're bitching about a certain group that was recently the victim of police violence.

Ah! He got me, he got me! Please, please, do not report my thought-crime to the authorities — I'll do anything!..

She did it by going to Texas, making her fortune in the electronics business, and paying for her trip to the International Space Station.

Now, if an immigrant from a 3rd-world country — coming here with little English and knowledge of culture, can do it, what is the excuse of the natively born-and-raised Americans?

Whom can they blame for being unable to afford whatever they want by age of 40?

Whatever you think of their politics

Well, it is exactly those policies, that made them a pariah of the world (except, of course, Russia) and caused the very poverty, that forced them cancel the space-program.

Spaceflight is one of the few remaining areas of "friendly rivalry" where everybody still cheers for the other teams' success

That may be so between Europe and US. Russia — and knowing Russian I know it for sure — stopped cheering American successes about 10 years ago. USSR never did either — when the Moon-landing was watched world-wide by everyone with a TV, USSR's television was broadcasting a ballet — the news appeared in news-papers the next day, but there certainly was no "cheering" of the other team's success.

I dare speculate, the official Iran today are much the same. As the old Russian saying goes: "tell me, who your friend is, and I'll say, who you are."

I take it you don't remember what it was like when those were all held by single entities.

I do remember it, and I mentioned that unfortunate state as one, brought about by an earlier attempt by our government to regulate cable companies. In exchange for the regulation they wrestled monopoly powers — and ran with it (like AT&T did decades before that).

That mistake was corrected in the 90ies, though the problems caused by earlier government stupidity remain. To now point at them and argue, we need more governmental control (as duckintheface is doing above), requires a very special kind of stupid.

Does anyone think the sponsors of this legialation have serioulsly considered the issues of user access and cost?

I sure do think so.

the mantra of "free markets"

Yes, leave it to Illiberals to criticize free markets. Government take-over did so well for railroads, public transport, and telephone-service, what could possibly be wrong about adding Internet to the mix?

This has resulted in a protected monopoly for these ISPs. [...] treat the ISPs as utilities so that their rates will be controlled

Yes, an earlier mistake of our government letting corporations have monopolies (of cable TV) still needs to be dealt with. But the price-control you are advocating in the next paragraph only makes things worse. Because the incumbents are much better versed in dealing with the government regulators, than a newcomer will ever be.

And, while you are accusing Republicans of baby-eating, it is the Democrats who are owned by the Big Cable.

This is really a free market in content

So, free market in content is a good mantra, but free market in service provision is bad? Or did you change your mind by the end of typing your post?

If "Consolidate Your Debt" was a special subject for them, I wonder, how many proposals of that kind the assholes had to sift through to find messages from real comrades.

E.g., the IRA, the LRA, the Nagaland rebels in India, Lebanese Christian Militia groups, the US based Christian Militia groups such as those involved for Ruby Ridge, and Waco, and even some lone-wolf radicalized persons such as the ones responsible for the 2011 Norway attacks

Nope. These guys may be Christian and they may be terrorists/criminals/nasty, but they aren't Christian terrorists — that is, they are fighting their fights — and committing their outrages — for a variety of reasons, but not because a scripture tells them to.

on top of the clichéd plethora of abortion bombers...

Same thing — you can be a good Christian and not bomb abortion clinics. In fact, you can even disapprove of such bombings done by others. But you can not be a good Muslim and tolerate mocking of the Prophet.

That's the fundamental difference, which you refuse to acknowledge despite overwhelming evidence. Thanks for playing.