a device or implement, especially one held in the hand, used to carry out a particular function

This is actually a very good definition, superior any of the 6 definitions in the paper dictionary by my desk. It also agrees with the critical distinction provided by "sjbe", who you needlessly flamed.

Then you have read neither.

There is no comparison between the two in terms of violence. The Qu'ran is in part a history of the early conquests and has over a hundred verses about smiting the unbelievers.

While there is some "smite the unbelievers" in the Bible, it is limited to the Old Testament... which was not written by Christians, but is there to support the claim of Christ being the one prophesied in the Old Testament.

The new Testament, contains no such verses justifying the killing of unbelievers by Christians.

Smiting by the hand of God? Sure, but not by members of the religion.

You can add a Verbatim engine to the Chrome Selection Search extension, too.

We all benefit from having a well educated society, so we should all pay for schools.

That's a blatant non sequitur. Furthermore, people who send their children to private schools or who home-school are still forced to pay the same taxes as everybody else, despite the fact that they're already paying for more than the burden they're placing on the education system.

It gets worse. Many modern public schools are teaching political indoctrination and historical lies, and are generally crippling the minds of their students. That sort of education does not benefit me, it harms me.

We all benefit from living in neighborhoods full of happy people. Puppies make people happy. Therefor we should all pay taxes to buy puppies. Puppy ownership should be made mandatory.

We all benefit from the oxygen given off by plants. Therefor tax money should be paid to put grass on every possible surface.

This is fun, I could go on all day. "We should all pay for schools because we all benefit from a well educated society" is a completely broken argument.

damage to roadways occurs by the square of the vehicle's weight.

Where'd you pick up that fiction? It doesn't take much thinking to realize that it's a complicated function closer to weight per unit area than weight alone. There's probably a critical point where added burden actually starts breaking up the road, rather than just wearing it faster. Old-style tire studs are very hard on roads, and metal treads or metal farm vehicle wheels are downright destructive (and often illegal on public roads).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

OS image size is 30k, including a bunch of stuff IoT probably doesn't need (pre-emptive multithreading, multiple network support, multiple platform support, etc...)

As long as taxes on semis reflect the actual expenses they cause in road maintenance, etc., then justice is being served.

Road maintenance has to be paid for through some mechanism. If that mechanism doesn't accurately track expenses, you're demanding that someone pay for things they have no responsibility for. That's an improper burden on them, and should be avoided if it's practical to do so.