I suspect grandparent has ideological reasons for wanting to give money to a private contractor rather than a government agency. 80% of NASA's yearly budget will barely slow the deficit's rise, and it's a suspiciously /round/ number.

The Whigs and Federalists disappeared because their parties collapsed. It's going to take some doing to get one of the big two to collapse these days.

"States Rights" is almost always shorthand for "the state should be free to oppress you, but the feds had better not try to oppress you or put a stop to the state oppressing you". There's a reason why the Southern racists kept talking about states rights.

You'll have to change the system before third parties become viable in this country. First Past the Post has to go, as does letting politicians draw their own goddamn district boundaries.

Atheists are distrusted as much as Muslims are among the general population: http://www.pewforum.org/2014/0...

Outside of local races in certain areas, I wouldn't expect an open atheist to be elected right now in the USA.

More like I haven't got time due to having an actual job, and I don't want my personal life becoming public fodder for an attack machine.

How do you propose to do that? The districts are gerrymandered to hell and back to favor one party or another and most people don't vote in primaries, so the primary becomes both a UGG ME MORE EXTREME THAN OTHER GUYS contest and the de-facto general election.

The way the country is at this moment you're apt to wind up with a state house full of teabaggers, and while that will at least be different it would be overall worse.

Spot the idiot who doesn't have any chronic medical conditions that are a death sentence without a steady supply of medicine, and who's wearing rose-colored glasses about human nature.

But then we'd have to RAISE TAXES (horrors!) to pay for it.

I can get glasses that last for 5+ years for a couple hundred dollars, vs. lots more for surgery with its inherent risks. My glasses are generally only annoying when I work outside & get sweaty.

Around here some of the public schools just got rid of Pentium IIIs. Not everyone can afford something decent.

I suppose it might seem that way if you're an idiot.

There must be lots of Texas A&M sorority girls. :P

That's one way of looking at it. I expect that if more states pegged minimum wage to inflation you'd see a lot of bellyaching from conservatives about minimum wage always going up.

Just so. When the minimum wage is so low that one can't support a family on it without government aid, then government aid to the worker is effectively subsidizing the employer's business model; it's socialism for capitalists.