I think people should be allowed to put anything forward, and they still can, the threshold is just bigger before the White House will recognize it.

Given how these have taken off, I don't feel like this is unreasonable or in any way undemocratic. If it only takes about a week to get 25k, it seems like 100k should be in reach if its a half decent petition.

I mean, isn't that around 0.03% of the population? Up from around 0.008%?

It reminded me of that group that bought cases and cases of the Harry Potter books so they could burn them. A publisher's dream...

I sincerely doubt the founding congress considered the impact of what they were writing on what would have been insane nonsensical ideas like tanks, nukes, or the Air Force.

The second amendment says

You seem to make the mistake that the writers of the constitution were concerned with unlimited gun rights, when they were really concerned about having a well regulated militia to protect the state

In a different time the same amendment was used to tell people that they were required to buy guns and supplies to arm themselves so they could protect the State if it were threatened, without the State contributing financially to anything.

I hear this a lot, and I have all my life, but I still don't know that it's true. The actual text, and the background of how the second amendment was introduced and implemented, it doesn't appear like this is the case.

Minute-men had a huge impact and militias were 100% vital in the USA coming into existence, but the second amendment was written to keep the USA in existence. They wanted a well-regulated milita (a well-trained, armed force) to be able to bear arms to protect the security of a free State (essentially, the ability to train, and be called on, to protect the USA.)

I'm not against the idea that a little rebellion now and again is good for a state, but it doesn't seem to be historically accurate to connect it to the second amendment

I believe early on it was used to justify telling gun manufacturers they had to create weapons of certain sizes and required men of a certain age to own a gun and other equipment, and was sometimes used to justify drafts before we had a true organized national military.

Also interesting that you would consider yourself and the government as two very separate entities. And the idea that, if the government has a weapon you don't, then they will use it against you. I believe our founding father's believed, above all else in government, that this government would be of the people and that the structure setup would ensure that it would stay that way.

Disclaimer: My wife is a mental health nurse for a state-owned mental hospital.

Most states have already, or are in the process, of massively downscaling their state-owned/state-run mental health facilities. Several states have simple closed them all and dumped everyone on the street. On top of that, the process has shifted from being one of "healing" to "management".

Now patients come in by court order, get drugs, maintain their drugs, show some sign of improvement on paper, get discharged, stop taking drugs, re-commit some sort of crime, come in by court order....and the process repeats.

It is very expensive, but there is a decent section of the population that just don't and shouldn't function in normal society. They need help and there is increasingly few places to turn for help if your family member is in that situation. Even if they are, it's hard to get help unless you are either rich, or the court has mandated it. Many places will not accept patients except through court order.

I would consider paying $1,400/class for an online class through UC. It would look better than my community college and would be taken more seriously than a lot of 100% online colleges. However, not for the few crappy classes they offer. The course catalog only has a few courses, and they all are entry level and non-serious.

As a professional, I would be willing to pay $1,400 for an upper level finance course from a respected university, but Pre-Calc, intro psych, and "climate change" are all courses that don't matter where they are from.

What chinese kid with $1,400 hasn't already taken all the courses they offer?

Hey, why doesn't someone cram an ipod, a cell phone, and a web-browser all together?

Hey, why don't we create a website where people can only post messages 140 characters long?

Hey, why doesn't someone create a website where people can post normal photos, but we put them through a filter to make them look old?

Hey, why doesn't someone make a device that runs like a pc but you can hold like a portable gaming device, with an extra removable battery, so my kids can play mainstream games in the back seat?

Hopefully, you are wrong. These are the same people who thought, "hey, let's make a normal mouse with a bunch of buttons, then let's add 12 thumb buttons on the side." I'm sure it sounded stupid, but it's a nice mouse.

I've asked the question for a long time. Sure, this isn't going to play everything well, but it is going to be able to play mainstream games in the back of the car like you would use a DS.

People don't buy these to save money, and for the money it would be silly to buy an air, as you get better gaming on a cheaper system. That's not the point. People will pay for an innovative device and buy accessories. Consoles come with one controller and you have to buy extra, and pay a premium for games, and have a million accessories you can buy. People buy them when they are nice. There is a market, and when you are the first to market, you generally have a good chance to shape it and eventually profit.

This one actually had a lot of input from the market it is aiming for.

Since when does hardware aimed at hardcore gamers rarely end well? Razer does alright at that. I would not like using a Razer Naga Epic here at work, but I don't want anything else for an MMO at home.

This has some features not available in any other form, and for that reason I think it could sell. A full PC in a tablet size that has several input configurations (making it like a laptop, a tablet, or a gameboy-style device) and two different ways to hang on an additional, removable battery. It's pretty nice for the market and the purpose it was designed.

If you aren't a hardcore gamer, why would you think you would like it, if it was being made for you to play your basic tablet touch-based games?

Regarding herd immunity; Herd immunity works great if the entire population has a perfect immunity. the more varied (trending downward) the immunity levels of the populous, the greater likelihood you have actually helped spread the virus.

I like your argument for the sake of the general population. Americans overuse antibiotics and generally ignore the beneficial impacts of occasionally getting sick and exposed to a wide variety of viruses, illnesses, etc.

However, that doesn't hold true for healthcare workers. Some hospitals that might not be as clean have less MRSA, but it doesn't mean they have less bacteria. People might still get infections in those hospitals, it's just easier to treat.

The flu, on the other hand, is okay for some, bad for others, and terminal for some. Nurses might interact with elderly cancer patients, immuno-compromised children, and very sick, homeless, drug-addicts - all in the same day. Every effort should be made to keep what is afflicting patient A from affecting patient B. Hand-sanitizers are by every door in a hospital not so the patients can sanitize their hands but so their handlers can.

They regularly put themselves in high-risk situations and should make every effort to minimize risk. If they aren't alright with that, they should find a different place to work. Not every nurse has to get a flu shot at all establishments, but it is becoming more popular - just as hand-sanitizing and gloves have in the past couple decades.

Of all the things that money is completely wasted on, this doesn't seem like one of them.

Sure, it might not be necessary, but it could be useful. If roads are being rebuilt anyway, the cost can't be that much greater given the size and scope of building roads. It seems like this would be useful when going around curves and helping to see where the road is when it is not directly in front of you, as would already be illuminated by your headlights.

I've always wished that they would spend a little money on developing some of these technologies. With little incremental cost we could do some cool things when rebuilding roads, like experimenting with power distribution, conduits for fiber runs, etc. It never makes sense to redo roads to put these in, and it's too expensive to build test roads, but if the cost isn't that great we could do a lot of experimenting when we're making new ones.

The president doesn't make these decisions. You might think he's supposed to lead by telling congress what to spend money on, but you would be just another person enabling congress to continue to suck. The president is designed to hold back congress from doing crazy stuff. That's why he has the veto power - and nothing more. Congress sets the budget and congress fails when the budget is wrong. There are 535 people with their own leadership structure. When they fail it's not the presidents' fault, no matter who it is.

Blaming the president for Congress' failing through lack of leadership just enables the executive branch to assume more power and the legislative to point more fingers.

With only linux laptops?

I buy a lot of dell machines, and I can tell you today what I pay for one, and you will go search for it, and find a different price. Navigating the dell website for a deal is like throwing darts in the dark. It depends on what links you click on, which base model you chose, which "store" you are in, and what software is on it.

Right now you can look at the Dell "Home" store and see Windows 7 clearance machines. These machines are about $50 more than the same machines with Windows 8 in the Cyber Week deals. Both places are cheaper than if you go through the "non-deal" links and build the exact same system on your own.

Anyone who thinks that Dell will sell a machine for exactly $50 difference hasn't purchased many Dell machines. It might be $50 today, for a base with an i5 and an SSD. It might be $200 difference if you start with a base machine that you have to upgrade to an i5 and an SSD.

Last time I wrote my senator (Dan Coats) it was to express my disapproval in what he was doing and how he was acting on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

I got a letter back in the mail, which started out "Thank you for your letter supporting me in my disapproval of how the Obama administration is handling the Bengazi incident. As you may or may not be aware, I sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee..."

You can write, call, speak, campaign, but it doesn't really matter. Everyone that gets elected seem to think they have a "mandate" and do whatever they want until someone else gets elected and continues on in the same manner.