It's hard to compete with the used market. If you buy new, it's a much better proposition. In my case, I like being able to take all those books on long plane flights without carrying dozens of pounds of paper with me. That convenience is worth a lot when traveling, so for me it's a good deal.

Well, you could have sections rotate and others remain relatively fixed. Kinda like a great, space-faring ferris wheel or carousel, there could be a center hub that is (effectively) weightless, and a larger outer living region that has artificial gravity...uh, I mean centrifugal/centripetal forces acting upon it.

In my case, it's straightforward...if someone is assaulted, and it is by someone who is defending himself, that's acceptable. If someone is assaulted, but it's by someone who is robbing them, or who dislikes their color, or who is in a different gang, or...the list goes on. These are all assaults with the intention of harming someone who was not placing you or anyone else in immediate danger. At this point, WHICH of your criminal reasons caused you to commit the assault is something *I* don't really care about.

Not being able to use the XBox isn't a bug,it's a feature!

Ah, I'm immediately suspicious of any summary that mentions something weighing a kilo, anyway. It's mass, not weight! It's like saying someone masses two hundred pounds...that's weight, not mass! They mass in slugs, which is just amusing as all getout. Metric loses so much of the color the Imperial system has...where else can you measure things in gills, hogsheads, rods, chains, and slugs, anyway?

"pure democracy, by which I mean a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble..." "A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place..." 1)Sounds like exactly what I said. The US is a republic, unless you'd like to re-define who sits in the House of REPRESENTATIVES. 2) Am amazingly uninterested in what you think Madison prefers. 3) I agree with you that representatives are there to represent, not follow the latest polls. This is why I prefer our REPUBLIC to a TRUE DEMOCRACY. 4) Having lived in three countries, lemme fill you in on something: The US is special. I didn't go through the agony of naturalization for the entertainment value, nor did I do it because the US was just like any old country in Europe, Africa, or Asia. It isn't. 5) Glad you undid all your moderations for this posting. Lets me know whose political postings to ignore in future.

There are multiple reasons to have mid-term elections. Accountability for the People's House and the fact that we have divorced our legislature from our executive are the two best. This gives a chance for the voters who care about something other than who is president to get to vote for the legislature. There are MANY people in the legislature who are there now only because they ran at the same time as President Obama did, and they may not survive.

Yes, nevermind. SHould have finished reading the parent before posting.

In our predominantly Christian country, BOTH major parties are predominantly Christian. Duh.

It isn't a democracy; it's a republic. If it were a democracy, you'd have all the excitement of the tyranny of the majority - even worse than it is now.

I'm pretty sure that whether you like them or not, they're going to win most of the races they're in this political cycle. People are blaming the party currently in power for the current situation, just like they always do. Democrats currently control pretty much everything, and are going to pay the price for the current situation.

Tom Clancy was actually asked about that. He said he would never have written that into a book, because the idea that twenty suicidal guys would hijack a number of planes all at once was not believable before it had actually happened.

Wow. Paranoia has a new name...

Actually, over 80% of millionaires are first-generation millionaires. That is, they made their money themselves. Better than three-quarters of million-dollar inheratances are GONE within three generations. That is to say, the average rich person's great-grandchildren are middle class. It is a fallacy to say "the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer" without realizing that on the rich side - it isn't the same rich people.

You think Republicans are all rich people who want the poor to stay poor? No, they are people who want the poor to become rich, just like they are. The Democrats have the poor as their "slaves", effectively, dependent upon their entitlement programs for survival. You think the DEMOCRATS want those people to succeed? It's not in their interests.