Actually, communities tend to run infrastructure remarkably well. Look at water systems. When is the last time you were in a location with city water, turned on the tap, and nothing came out? (Assuming you weren't cut off for lack of payment, of course.) Towns know how to keep the water flowing. If a town is without water for a period of time, it makes national news. (Yes, there are developing nations that do not have potable water coming out of their taps. The US is not one of those nations, and this is a US topic.)

Governments are not incapable of running such a program, and they are not inherently guaranteed to suck at it.

Now, is this different because it will require tech support? Sure. Are cities prepared to deal with the calls, the service interruptions, the network attacks, etc? The cities that are asking are going into this eyes wide open. The FCC is not mandating that cities must carry their own networks, they are simply being asked to rule on a non-competition clause that unfairly prevents the city itself from providing said competition.

I think the biggest problem the cable companies face is that cities now know exactly how much it costs to run a network, and it's nothing like the extortionate rates the cable companies are charging today. If the city has a competent manager leading the project, and good engineering staff, they will deliver fast data along with great customer service at a price that is not only going to be competitive, it's going to dominate. Everyone wins, except for the shareholders of the cable companies - and as they've been winning for a couple of decades already, my sympathy for their plight is not exactly overwhelming.

Ah I used to live on Margarita and the pipe that would supply water from the main land broke. We had no running water for over 2 weeks. They brought it over in tankers and it got incredibly expensive, very fast. It was not a pleasant time. Good luck to you. I miss Venezuela.

Brawndo with electrolytes! It's got what plants crave!

No you're wrong. A1-15 are the only spots you can pay extra for. A15-30 are for frequent flyers with certain status. If A15-30 do not fill up by the time you can check in at the gate, those spots come up for sale also. Anyone can get A31-60. It's the people who have nothing better to do but camp out at their phones and check in exactly 24 hours early that get spots A31-60. Believe me, I used to fly Southwest ALL the time (not by choice), and I hate their boarding policy.

The guy has two kids. The odds are good that, even if he wanted to, he was too busy to check in 24 hours in advance to get an A spot. I've checked in 23:30 hours in advance and gotten a B50 spot on busy routes with a lot of business travelers. Cut the poor guy some slack. It's not like he was trying to bring his business partner or coworker with him. They were two young kids that should not be waiting in line alone anyway. They should be sitting together and its much easier for them to do so if they board in the A group. I would be willing to bet that none of the passengers around him would have complained about him bringing the kids on earlier. Not at that age, anyway.

My issue is when they want to say that they deserve to be treated equally and then complain when they aren't treated to a higher standard than men. Not all women do that. I would say most women do not do that. But a lot of the most vocal women I know expect ridiculous double standards between how men treat them versus how men treat each other. I don't believe double standards help anyone. Well, unless the double standard is in my benefit. Then it's the best standard one can apply. ;)

I just hate having to set an alarm on my phone to remember to check into my flight at exactly 24 hours in advance so that I don't get a C boarding pass. I feel like a slave to the airline. When I fly with another airline, I pick my seat in advance and go. Why should someone who bought a ticket the day before get a better seat than me because he has nothing better to do but sit on his computer and hit refresh until he is able to check in for the flight?

I think I've been on a plane with you sir, and I salute you wholeheartedly. One time a guy game from the back of the plane mid-flight (fasten seat belt light is on due to turbulence mind you), walks to the front row and starts looking for his bag. He can't find it and starts going through the overhead bins. He gets halfway through the plane on one side before a flight attendant came up and asked him what he was doing. He said someone stole his bag off the plane and went crazy. Flight attendant finally told him to sit down and to not look for his bag again or they would land the plane and the local police would help him find his bag when they hauled him off (this due to his belligerence). It all makes sense now!

Which may be fine and dandy if you're in the back row of the plane, or you have no connecting flight. But I can tell you right now that if my bag gets put 20 rows behind me, I am not going to go against the stream of people to try and grab it. That would be terribly rude. And I do not let other people walk the wrong way down the aisle to grab a bag when they are getting off either. I barely fit down the aisle, both height and width, so good luck getting around me.

That's not to say you can't get around that. A month ago I was traveling and gave up my window seat to a Chinese couple so they could sit together on a long transcontinental flight. I moved back 5 rows. I didn't bother with a carry on for this trip because it was a long one, but their carry on bags stayed in the back. Even though they barely spoke English, I helped them find their bags and pass them 5 rows forward so they didn't have to wait to get off the plane. But in general, if your bag is in a bin more than 1 or 2 rows behind your seat, you're screwed when you go to disembark.

See what I did there?

Go read The Fine Article before spouting your nonsense.

"Ay yo, Jamal blast on dat foo"

*BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM*

"I's staight busted dis GAT in dat nigga ass. I ain't even seen da body drop"

Holy Eubonics Batman!!

I still play some older COD games online with my brother. We're pretty good, and we make a great team. If we play on a Friday night there is a very high chance that someone will send us a private message with a death threat or other harassing language. I've heard it all. These people get pissed when they see two people on a 6 person team account for over half of winning score, assume we cheat, and go ballistic. I've got a friend who is much much better than both of us. When I play with him, that guy will get 70% of the points by himself. He gets a lot of hate.

Oh yeah. Had an ex girlfriend do that in college. She called 5-10 times per day for 3 months. Then for the next 3 months after that I would randomly find her waiting for me at places I never expected to see her (but she knew I went to). She would be waiting outside of my place at 2am when I would get home from a night out (she had no car, she would walk 1 hour and then wait for me outside for as long as it took). It was 6 months of wondering if she was going to try and kill me.

Sorry..but they need to grow a thicker skin.

If they can't play by the big boy rules then they don't belong in a big boy game.

If all that is true...they certainly have NOT been getting that message out nationally.

The national picture of Detroit and surrounding area..is pretty much one big,decaying heroin/crack den with abandoned and dilapidated properties...with tumbleweeds aplenty in the streets.

Hell, the episode of Drugs, Inc on the Nat. Geo channel alone painted a pretty bleak picture of Detroit spreading heroin around to not only itself, but the surviving suburbs that are still around the area.

Nope. California's budget is very solidly in black, average salary is way higher than in Texas and industry is _growing_. It turns out, that being a nice place to live attracts business.

Got any links to stats that back that up?

Certainly not what I'm hearing on the national news stations....MSNBC, CNN, FOX..etc.