The "have vs have not" discussion is not about the dissatisfaction from having only basic cable when other people get to have HBO, it is about the "haves" who can almost literally buy elections, design their own regulations, and even engage in rent-seeking endeavors to force the public to buy their product, and the "have-nots" who don't even have time to think about their own disenfranchisement because they are literally struggling to keep paying basic needs such as shelter and food. To be honest, this is more of a concern for exploited workers in "developing" countries, but workers in the US have been watching their standard of living decline to the point now that they are becoming focused on maintaining a standard of living that keeps them employable. That is, they may have clothes that aren't rags, they may have convenient access to restroom and shower facilities, they may have enough nutrition to barely maintain sufficient health to do their job, and they may have transportation to and from their jobs, but there isn't any money left from their pay after a week of work. They are literally working for the sake of work with little or no joy, no expectation of a better tomorrow, no expectation that their kids will be better off, and worse, they fear that pushed just one notch further they will be sucked into the inescapable void of homeless and government dependency. Many Americans, unfortunately, are already dependent on government programs even though they work almost full time, or two or more jobs that combined exceed 40 hours each week. There are Americans who "admit" to having a drug addiction they don't even have because otherwise they would be denied the aid they need.

You cannot force shame of dependency onto an entire population, deny access to the paid ears of their elected representatives, and then blame them for not taking "personal responsibility" for their circumstances after they played by the rules, worked hard to succeed at their jobs, lived frugally, pursued higher education, served their country with honor, saved and managed their own retirement accounts, only to be forced to empty those accounts to pay for food on today's table and today's rent. The only option left for them now to take "personal responsibility" is to take to the streets in a Bastille Day type fashion to correct a dysfunctional society. Recalling the Reign of Terror in France, I don't think that's how we would want to push the working masses to the brink.

Oddly enough, many of the problems that are threatening working people could be corrected with either a laissez-faire free market approach, or an effective Scandinavian-style social-democratic system. But what we have here today in the US is a neo-feudal corporate oligarchy empowered by urban Fascism. Try bettering yourself by selling fruit from a street cart in any American city and see how far you get with no more than an upfront investment that a working person could actually save from living a Spartan existence to be just barely employable over the course of three months. For the sake of a fair and rational argument on behalf of American workers, let's presume that no taxes are evaded and no labor or business laws have to be broken to succeed, as in the case of those who use the "if the illegals can come here and succeed" fallacy.

The drawback is that it keeps the body and the brain both from aging. Not sure if I want my 16 yo girlfriend to well, you know, like, keep the same mental maturity, or something like that, you know? Like, OMG, for real. LOL. BFN.

Don't discount grammar - it can save a human life. There's a big difference between "let's eat, Grandma!" and "let's eat Grandma!".

Impressive yes, but ultimately a failed allocation of resources. Had they used the stone and the labor to build better defenses rather than monuments they may had been able to prevent the numerous times the whole region was attack and invaded by outside conquerors.

Combined with straw that would become the mortar between each stone. In ancient times no resource went unused.

Now that we're done building a democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan, maybe the Egyptians will hire us to improve their organization.

So which is the "natural" process, decay from neglect or the active attempt to restore the monuments? I am so confused here.

Polls really shouldn't matter given the over-whelming number of peace and reconciliation rallies from Benghazi to Jakarta.

No, probably European. Americans don't sit back and wait for the international community to do something.

Nice to hear a rational voice. I can see how people get charged up emotional on issues pertaining to culture, heritage, "great art", even natural history, but at the end of the day there are other things that matter. In fact, people who get overheated about rather petty issues are what causes most of the violence in this world. Take a diamond for instance - it is just a compressed chunk of carbon that can be synthesized in a lab, but look at all of the world conflicts that are financed by the trade of this rock that is usually never put to one of its only functional uses - that is to cut hard materials such as glass and stone.

Don't even get me started on gold, which is extremely under-utilized as an electrical conductor simply due to its sentimental market demand and those who seek to profit from such demand.

So what you're saying is that there was a group of people minding their own business who built pyramids, but a horde of violent, religious fanatics showed up on horseback, took their lands, scattered the indigenous people, destroyed their civilization, took charge and settled the area in massive numbers that over the centuries crowded out the indigenous peoples, all while trying to force them to convert at the point of a sword. And in recent years the conqueror's descendents have been making money showing off the pyramids as part of a major tourist industry. Why do I feel like I've heard this happening elsewhere?

Unfortunately, some parts of the world just aren't ready for democracy.

Sucks to be you. Oh, and your rate has gone up $80 per month.

Meanwhile, I'm ditching cameras and insurance companies altogether and going full Mafia. "You hit me, we hit you!"

True. If you don't break something then you're not getting your money's worth. Time to put some big tires on that Hummer and run down a brick mailbox. You only live once!

Then if you ARE in an accident, they will deny your claim and if you fight it in court they will charge you with insurance fraud to encourage you to settle for little or nothing. If you're going to take on the insurance company you might as well tape a throw-away phone to the under-carriage of an insurance executive's sports car. When they try to jack up your rates for bad driving, ask them if VP Joe is paying the same rate - because if he's not he ought to be.