I don't get it. Why should robots have any more theological ramifications than any other tool? And if you are created in God's image, wouldn't you also want to create beings in your own image? I mean, if he's any kind of artist at all...

Ghostbusters? Pshaw! How about the National Lampoon radio Hour, which was SNL without pictures? Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Ankroyd, John Belushi, Gilda Radner... and, er, wasn't Ramis with them on SNL, too? I taped a couple of thise NLRO shows, have them digitized now. Some hilarious stuff!

Of course, most of you folks weren't even born then. Hey, would one of you kids mow my lawn?

Falwell is a terrible example. Preachers are supposed to lead by example, they're supposed to be above worldly things (and believe it or not, many people both clergy and non-clergy are).

A better example would be Bill Clinton or Newt Gingrich. With Clinton, he was a lousy husband but the best President I've seen since I started voting in 1972 (voting age was 21 in 1968). Those who hated him still hated him, everybody else complained about the government paying forty million bucks to prosecute a blow job.

Gingrich was pretty much the epitome of evil while pretending to be a Christian (he actually worships money, like most Americans). Christians do NOT divorce their wives who are dying of cancer so they can legally bang some other chick. Yet he's still got a lot of clout (ran for Pres in 1012).

Clergy are held to a higher standard than their congregations are. What's worse, Falwell practiced what he so vehemently preached against.

One of the few places in the world where murder is legal.

Route 66 and other roads did cross state lines, but until Eisenhower the feds weren't in the highway business, the states took care of their own roads. Eisenhower saw the Autobahn and saw what a military use it would be and when elected President, pushed the Interstate Highway System through (It took two hours to get to my grandparents', about 45 minutes these days).

Do you really want government "competing", keeping ie Google fiber out while they offer up government service that works as well as Congress does, with DMV style customer service, and healthcare.gov quality?

Local government does a damned good job of running the city-owned electrical infrastructure and generation here. Lowest rates in the state, best uptime, best customer service. And it damned well better stay that way or the Mayor and city council get voted out of office.

So tell me, how can you alone possibly affect Comcast or Google? YOU CAN'T. OTOH, if your local government is running it, YOU HAVE A SAY.

Oh, as to the DMV, that's what you get when you vote people into office who think government is always the problem and never the solution. The DMV here in Illinois has been fast and courteous, although I can see where you might have shitty service somewhere like Texas, Florida, or Indiana since they're run by right-wing nuts who WANT government to fail and want people to hate their government (I used to live in Florida, their DMV is horrendous, like one would expect from a red state).

You're a fool. Your politicians have pulled the wool over your eyes.

And don't think for a second that the people involved in local government aren't interested in making decisions that personally profit themselves and their friends.

The graft isn't the problem, the lack of accountability is the problem. Take electricity -- the city owns and runs our power company. We have the lowest rates in the state, the lowest downtime, and the best customer service. Oh, and it profits from power sold to other power companies, keeping our taxes and rates down. So why is it so much better than the next town over?

Because the next town over is Amerin, a corporation. Its CEO is beholden to the stockholders, and no one else. It isn't like you can buy your electricity from a competitor. So the rates are as high as state government will allow, customer service is pretty much nonexistent, and downtimes are high and there's nothing the customer can do about it.

Here, more than one Mayor has been voted out of office because folks were pissed about electrical service. CWLP customers can fire their "CEO".

I'd rather type on my old ZX81 than on my Android. Typing on glass sucks.

IOW, "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent" -- Salvor Hardin

I'll have a lot more time to work on new stuff after Thursday. But I have too many irons in the fire right now. I'm trying to get The Paxil Diaries in print because ten years later people are still nagging me. I haven't worked on Mars, Ho! in months. I'm looking forward to Thursday! That's my last day of work and I'm retired.

No, that's NOT how it's supposed to be happening. The government is constitutionally prohibited from spying on Americans' communications without a warrant. Once you have a warrant, eavesdrop all you want.

Too bad they no longer respect that document, if in fact they ever did.

And here I thought the explanation of how the T-2000 worked sounded like utter bullshit when I saw the movie, requiring suspension of disbelief. Except, of course, this stuff doesn't turn completely solid.

Your mother apparently neglected to teach you to not do things to people that they don't want you to do to them. Maybe she thought you were smart enough to figure it out yourself. If so, she was wrong.

You are discussing eugenics as an autocratic institution.

That's the only way eugenics works. You like eugenics? Move to North Korea where they make mothers drown newborns who aren't 100% Korean.

There's no particular reason it has to be that way. It's basically just animal husbandry as applied to yourself

Deciding your own offspring's traits isn't eugenics. Eugenics is, according to Websters, "The study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, especially by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics)".

Animal husbandry isn't eugenics, the term only applies to humans.

It can be. It can also be breeding traits in to a species. Look at how the Vikings managed to beautify the nordic gene pool with their routine kidnapping of foreign beauties.

So you're OK with rape and kidnapping? Do you have any idea how evil you sound?

discourage stupid people from breeding, or encourage smart people. Even if it's a government-organized program there's no reason it has to turn ugly - propaganda campaigns and/or an intelligence based breeding bonuses would go a long way.

So you're OK with discrimination, too? The mind boggles. Guess what -- you won't get the bonus. Lack of empathy is a negative trait which should be bred out of the species... that is, if you're ok with eugenics.

Your lack of intelligence would also disqualify you, since you seem to think stupidity is always inherited. It seldom is. Mental retardation is almost always the result of environmental factors, such as an umbiilical cord wrapped around the baby's neck during delivery, accidents when very young (blows to the head), and chemical exposure. Read up on it.

Take welfare as it existed 30 years ago in the US - I knew lots of families growing up who basically supported themselves by having babies, because that was the most profitable thing they were qualified to do.

What does that have to do with breeding traits into or out of people? You don't seem to understand the difference between genetics and environment. These people were chosen for their poverty, not their genetic makeup, and there's damned little correlation between the two.

You also don't seem to have heard of folks who were born in 1990 in welfare but are now in college.

Both sad and disgusting. Please don't breed!