OK, I'm going on a trip where I won't be able to charge my laptop for about 10 hours.

The list is in Article 1, Section 8. Health care isn't on the list. Military spending is on the list. Manned spaceflight might be considered military spending, although I would have to agree with you that a civilian space agency is not on the list.

Why did you bring up Somalia? Limited government != no government.

As long as the federal taxes are being collected for purposes that are constitutional you are correct about my ability to leave. I suspect we disagree what is constitutional. Since we have a very specific list in the Constitution, I would think that would be an easy determination. Note that health care is not on the list.

Somalia is not a libertarian paradise -- again, it is lawless. Lawlessness is not a libertarian principle. I'm not a libertarian and even I know that. Taxation, even though it is coercion, is fine -- provided it is done within the limits imposed by the Constitution.

You again expand your point into new areas. I'll pick a few of your new topics to respond to.

Taxes are confiscation. If you don't pay them, they will be taken from you forcibly. We allow our government the monopoly of force in exchange for limited powers.

Somalia: I assume you bring this lawless state up as an example of a capitalism gone bad. Capitalism is an economic system where every exchange is consensual. Lawless Somalia is the opposite of this. So surely I must misunderstand your point.

On cost plus vs. fixed fee contracts we agree. Fixed fee contracts are better. Unfortunately, the risk is often too high for some projects to lead to any serious fixed fee bids.

Your original post seemed to indicate that the government has a zero cost of capital -- which is what profit pays for in private businesses. This is simply not true. The US Governments either has to print money, borrow it, or confiscate it from citizens. If they print it, the cost is paid via by devaluing our dollars. If they borrow it, we eventually pay interest. If they confiscate it, we pay for it directly. This is no different than paying the contractor profit. Profit is not evil.

Your second post changes the subject. Now you suggest a different type of contracting approach -- from cost plus to fixed fee. True, this is a different incentive, but the contractor is still making a profit. Good contractors will charge more for a fixed fee vs. cost plus contract due to the higher risk -- all other factors being equal.

The bottom line is that the government is a terribly inefficient way to do anything. They simply have no motivation to provide value -- it is always someone else's money.

Brilliant! Using this logic the government might as well do everything.

Monopsony does not generate a competitive market -- especially government monopsony.

I very much doubt the engineer could do the sales guy's job.

It's a fucking war idiot. They had weapons -- including an RPG. Even Wikileaks admits that. A US unit was engaged a block away. It wasn't covered up, it was investigated by the Pentagon.

You need to grow the fuck up fast. Those guys over their in the helicopter perform a more courageous act by just getting up in the morning than the sum total of courage you display your entire life.

Several of the men are clearly carrying weapons. One looks like an RPG.

How do you know they were civilians? How do you know they weren't receiving fire? How do you know they could even see the helicopter?

You don't. All we know is somebody released some classified information.

Simply not true. One of the guys had an RPG and is clearly shown in the video with it. In addition, another US unit was under attack one block away.

You have no idea why it was classified. Wikileaks edited out 17 minutes of the video, didn't show what happened before the video was shot, and put our men and women at risk.

They will find the perpetrator and lock him up -- as is perfectly appropriate.

"WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video..."

I hope they find out who leaked this and put them in a locked cell. Releasing classified material puts all of our American soldiers in danger -- not to mention our country.

You can install whatever software you want on an iPhone or an iPad using ad hoc distribution.

I'm a die hard free market capitalist and I have to say you are clueless. If legit software can't provide value beyond what is freely available, it deserves to fade away. This is even more true for legit hardware -- whatever that is...