That might be the best allusion I've ever seen in an Internet comment. "Surely", I thought, "that's a reference to actual soap opera radio programs and not the anti joke." How long did you wait to do that?

--sabre86

You would say that, wouldn't you, Mike?

Bruce said "we've got to reward the companies that do this" not "we've got to punish the companies that don't." The former is pragmatism -- seeking to achieve and support a positive result (vendor provided open source video drivers) through reasonable means. The latter is zealotry -- seeking to punish a group through not following the "one true way".

Working vendor supported FOSS drivers are useful as the abilities to repair, improve, share and modify the drivers are all of considerable utility to the graphics card using community (even if not to one particular person in it). I do agree that the drivers should be at least servicable before anyone should buy a product. But servicable is all they need to be to be useful now.

--sabre86

I believe that once asylum is granted in the US, it's permanent. And, yeah, getting rid of the black market for drugs would go a long way to fixing a lot of problems.

A country is not a property like a home. No person or collective owns the United States. Furthermore, a lot of the illegal immigrants do ask permission from the federal government, they simply get rejected. Moreover, there are plenty of American residents and citizens who welcome the Mexican immigrants, so there are already plenty of people who have just as legitimate a claim to the US as "home" as you or I welcoming these immigrants, both legal and illegal.

There's plenty of room for debate and discussion as to what extent the federal government can be considered a steward, an owner or merely a servant regarding the nation as a whole and furthermore public property. Consider it this way, the government being able to dictate what guests I have in my home because they are illegal immigrants is a violation of my property rights.

Potential, even active, competition for resources is not harmful. Refusing to share an abundance of resources with the needy is causing harm. How needy Mexicans and immigrants are, I can't say. Nor do I know if the US as a whole is facing a resource shortage. I strongly doubt immigration is a major contributor to any water shortages. And even so, better that we open the border and use the influx of labour to improve our ailing infrastructure. Because, frankly, one of the biggest reasons why illegal immigration is large is because cheap labour is one resource that seems quite scarce in the native population.

Thanks for the discussion.

--sabre86

If there's a war in Mexico, then we should be giving shelter and asylum to refugees trying to escape it.

I don't think you did a good job of self-censoring. Furthermore, I don't really know how you'd "close the border" without harming a lot of people who aren't a threat to your home, self or country. Mexico -- or at least parts of it -- looks like a hell hole to me at the moment, so it seems pretty reasonable and rational to flee to the United States. I think only the most unreasonable of people would object to a individual or nation acting in genuine self-defense, but to the ethical risking the lives of non-threatening people is still reckless endangerment and killing them is, minimally, manslaughter

Could you back up your murder and kidnapping statement? Just looking at the FBI murder figures for 2009 for cities over 100,000 population, Phoenix has a murder rate of about 8 murders per 100,000 capita per year. DC's murder rate is 3 times that.

Wikipedia has a page for the 2008 data. New Orleans tops the list (as it does in the 2009 data at 52 -- there seems to have been a significant drop in murder rate in 2009). Phoenix looks to about 28th on that list with a about 11 murders per 100,000 in 2008 -- less than a sixth of New Orleans's rate and about a third DC's.

Kidnapping seems like it's a lot harder to quantify because cases of missing persons are not necessarily kidnapping. This is the best discussion on kidnapping I could find in about 15 minutes of searching. It gives further support to the idea that Mexico is a hell hole at the moment, as well

.--sabre86

You've got good points, but there's no need for the name calling.

Thanks for the explanation!

Speaking of AC Propulsion, I always thought the tZero was a great idea, particularly the towed engine for long range travel. Any idea why Tesla hasn't replicated this?

--sabre86

It's GNU Go, I believe FSF holds to the copyright to it.

--sabre86

Beloved Muppet Beaker has provided a well stated response to the school board.

You tell 'em Beaker!

--sabre86

Who did Marx imprison or kill?

--sabre86

I feel I'm pretty well educated about the US legal system, at least. I'm aware that the courts (once again, a group of people) consider themselves to be the finders of law and the juries to be the finders of fact, at least in the US. I'm aware that juries can be tainted with prejudice and misinformation. Hell, that's half the art of courtroom lawyering. And yes, the judge's job is to moderate the effect of a jury's potential biases. That doesn't make my statement any less true, though. Judges can be just as tainted.

Then why respond at all, particularly with such a insubstantial, insulting statement? You don't have the time to educate, only to belittle? I suspect instead you don't actually have a constructive argument.

--sabre86

The court is just as human as the jurors and thus emotional and subject to bias. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

--sabre86

The shuttles are working space craft will full life support systems, lots of living and experiment area, windows, equipment bays and robotic arms. Why not simple add them to the space station and quadruple it's life support capacity. Sure, you need to add maybe another node and some solar panels, but they're already built and can launch themselves. And they provide another reentry method in case of an emergency. Hell, they're working space craft that can be used as actually space shuttles going to and from the station to other orbits to service satellites and such.

--sabre86