Bowing is not common in Asia. It is common in a couple countries in Asia. Across Asia it is very uncommon though.

If we're going to teach cultural differences then let's at least be accurate about them.

No one. The people will not back any significant change. They are literally too fat and happy. Even people below the poverty line on welfare are obese. Why would they change anything?

The system will not change while the States have an obesity epidemic. The citizens are literally too fat and happy.

It's the 2 minutes of incident filled operation you need to worry about. The x hours of safe operation someone else logged are meaningless to me.

While we have an obesity epidemic there will be no significant change.

People are literally too fat and happy.

Please show me where in the mandate it states that people must use birth control. If that's not in there then there's no religious issue.

There is no religious freedom issue here. No where in the mandate does it say you have to use birth control.

Girls go for guys with confidence. The smart and geeky is optional.

That link doesn't mean what you think it means.

There are many alternate currencies in the US. The government has never had a single problem with any of them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaca_Hours
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_community_currencies_in_the_United_States

Girls go for the doctor.

Guys go for the companion.

The complaint is that the book is pornographic. How is the situation you describe "pornographic"?

The simple explanation, monopoly, is true. The cost of entering the financial system is prohibitively expensive. Look at the trouble Discover has had entering the market. Additionally there is collusion by the existing market players. Visa and MasterCard would not allow banks to issue a Discover Card if they issued a Visa or MasterCard. That was fought all the way to the supreme court.

Your ebay example is flawed for a couple reasons. If the fee is for fraud then charge me for buying from ebay, or other markets with high fraud. Don't charge me on everything. Name and shame ebay. Either ebay will fix the service or trustworthy escrow services will spring up at a lower price point. The other major flaw is that ebay is trivial. They have about 4B in yearly revenue. By comparison Starbucks has about 14B and Target has about 84B. Now add in Best Buy, Walmart, Hyvee, Sears, and the Gap brands. If we're talking about 93 percent of all transaction then Ebay is a nothing company, statistically zero. To set policy on it is nonsensical.

You also failed to address the selling of spending habits, which I am not compensated for.

I actually view that as a downside. Why should I pay visa 2-5% of every transaction for the privilege of selling my spending habits to others. Of which I see no profit.

Don't forget that we'll pay them 2-5% of every transaction for the privilege. Up to 30% for the privilege of paying in installments.

I've never heard of that. Links to laws please? What country are you talking about?