If there's no actual investment then why do I get a yearly report from the Social Security Administration telling me how much I have in my fund? If you are agreeing that Social Security is a huge money hole where future generations pay for the retirement of the old, then who WOULDN'T opt out? Probably just the old, not the people paying for the old to retire.

You'd want to opt out of Social Security because it's a Ponzi Scheme. Or maybe because you can get better returns on your retirement dollars in a private fund. Or maybe because you'd rather buy gold for your retirement savings.

If you don't pay your mortgage than you are in violation of a contract and the bank goes to the government to bring guys with guns to kick you out as you are trespassing on the bank's property. It's still the government with the guns. Your bank can't have it's own private enforcement kick you out of their house.

As if asahi.com wasn't already borked from the canal story, we link to them again?

Nuke them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

Or we could ditch ethanol for fuels... Or stop paying farmers to go crops that there isn't demand for.

I unplugged the On-Star module underneath the glove compartment in my G6. Then the cruise control stopped working. Taking it into the dealership, of course their solution is to plug On-Star back in, and then the cruise magically started working again. Tell me that GM isn't going to sabotage the cars of people who choose to disable On-Star... So I got a Ford instead. Not that My Ford Touch is any great technology either.

So instead of linking to the original Jalopnik article, you post a copy on Road and Track?

No, it means problems are often not repeatable and thus are easier to deny claims on. More and more cars are going toward virtual input devices and they have random bugs and errors all the time. Rarely, they release an update, but more likely the dealership can't reproduce the problem and they shrug and send you on your merry way.

Actually animals that are yummy don't go extinct. We domesticate them. It's all the ones that are useless to serve or be eaten by humans that are going extinct.

It was weird for me after the surgery when in the winter I was all like, "what the hell is this shit pelting me in the eyeballs?"

It depends on the specific procedure. I had PRK done and I could actually see the LED target get clearer with each shot of the laser during the actual surgery. But yes, take the valium... It's extremely stressful to be immobilized for such a long period of time and having your eyelids clamped open.

Yeah, like the free games are stupidly hard and you can realistically only complete it if you pay for an upgrade or hints.

The Constitution came to be as an agreement between people that was voted on and approved. It's not magic pixie dust, but it is the document which is the people's contract with our government. I think it's a pretty good foundation. It's not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than what we've got now. I can read the entire Constitution. I have read it several time in fact. It's a concise document that is pretty clear on most issues. It's been changed because the political class always desires more power and the people have lost the enthusiasm for liberty that the founding fathers had. Bread and circuses is what we have now to keep the masses content. How long do we have to wait for the fiddling to start?

Well then fuck you too. Libertarians respect people who don't believe what they do. Apparently you can't do the same. I don't take the Federalist Papers as the bible, but I do see the wisdom in the words it contains. The threat of democracy doesn't lie in the distinction between direct voting and representative voting, but in the idea that whatever is popular should be the law. The Constitution is written to protect individual rights regardless of what is popular by limiting the powers of government. Libertarians only ask that the government stay within the bounds of its charter. A federal enforcement arm such as the FBI or federal marshals is fully within the bounds of the Constitution and a Republic, even one with democratically elected representatives. However, your original argument of "like a democracy" was bullshit as a monarchy or even a dictatorship can still have government enforced tort law.

So basically you attack a libertarian because you don't respect them and don't even put together a coherent argument. So if you aren't going to respect me, or anyone who believes as I do, then I will return your lack of respect with another fuck you in closing.

I think you are mixing up what I am saying. Poor people would take coal power without hesitation because it's cheap and it's better than what they have. They then can use electricity to heat their food instead of burning wood. Coal is the cheapest power source and thus the most likely to be within reach of the poor. Thus coal burning is going to replace wood and charcoal burning in the long run.