I get (and mostly agree with) your point, but a license to drive a cab/limo is barely more expensive than a regular one - in my state, $5 more every four years. It does require a medical exam and a scheduled road test, but those are one-time expenses. It's not like a year-long training program.

That's more like UberBlack and UberSUV. We're talking UberX, where you're picked up by a normal person using their personal vehicle.

You certainly do where I live in the US. A standard individual car insurance policy does not cover commercial activity - for example, delivering pizzas.

Because we routinely hold people who engage in some activity for profit to a higher standard than those that do it for fun. It's the difference between flying yourself and running an air taxi, between having friends over for dinner and opening a restaurant.

UberX is an enabler for unlicensed car service, but their Black and SUV are registered livery operators.

They're not cheaper than taxis. They're at best roughly competitive. What you get with Uber is two things: their Black and SUV service is much nicer than a taxi for little more, and UberX should - in theory, due to congestion pricing - insure that there's always a ride available, even if it isn't cheap.

Of course they are. Just look at air travel: people complain about small seats, long lines, and all the nickel-and-dime fees, but they keep on buying the cheapest seat available. OTOH you can pay more and get a first-class seat that has none of those problems and includes priority boarding and security screening. You get the service you pay for.

No, they don't.

What kind of support do you need for a DVD player?

There is a solution to this problem: goats. Turn all that thorny nuisance into yummy meat and cheese.

The solution is not to render everything in the world suitable for blind experimentation by five-year-olds with no impulse control.

Perfect example: you can still get the final update firmware flash for a USRobotics Courier. Or take ReplayTV, who lifetime-activated all devices when they shut down the servers. If you can find a place to give you the guide data, you can still run one.

Put them out of reach of the small children and teach firearm discipline to the older ones. I certainly knew to keep my hands off guns by the time I was six.

The amendment process for the Constitution is not for the faint of heart. The usual method is to have a 2/3 majority of both the houses of Congress pass the amendment, and for that amendment to be ratified by 3/4 of state legislatures. There is no way in hell that amendment would ever get through Congress, let alone the state legislatures.

Strict constructionists think that to change the meaning of the Constitution, you have to actually amend it. There's a process for that written right into it.