Like the moral teaching that women are the property of their husbands, or that slavery is fine? There's no reason to live by millenia-old rules just because they're old.

Xbox for an Xbox.

I see two problems here.

Why cut back space programs instead of, say, military spending or bank bailouts? A fraction of either would put humans on Mars and probes on Jovian moons, and a little more cutbacks we'll have us solving climate change as well..

Also, there will always be a promising new propulsion system on the horizon. When you've built a VASIMIR engine, there will be antimatter propulsion, and then some space-bending engine, and then an Infinite Improbability Drive. When do you stop tinkering and simply get your ass to Mars?

"Get your ass to Mars!"

I suggest we rename Uranus to something that will to end that stupid joke once and for all.

As a web developer, I can turn any one of the features for me into useful features for users.

People can't stomach it because of the waste of life and resources, which in the end accomplishes nothing but the installation of another despot.

The latest developments in the Middle East will hopefully be the final nail in the coffin of you war mongers.

Thank you. You just volonteered as fertilizer for the biofuel that those of us who will be alive in 40 years will need.

Hopefully there's Women Out There Too, or the Journey Will Be Short.

Balderdash. PEGI has 570 18+ games listed, 1603 16+ games and 2566 12+ games. ESRB shows similar numbers.

Quite an empty argument. You can say that about all conflicts attributed to one cause or another. It's not oil, it's politics. It's not ethnic strife, it's politics. Homophobia in Uganda? Bad people, not bad religion. Vatican coverup of pedophile priests? Fallability of people, not the religion. Etc, etc.

Also, since religion and politics have essentially been the same or overlapped to a big degree, political motivations may well be the same as religious. I'd say that it's the case even today to some degree. It certainly seems that way in the US, and is obviously true for many middle eastern nations and groups.

Obviously there are political motivations, but you don't have to look far on either side to find religious zealotry as a strong force, especially for those who do the fighting. Blaming only religion is simplistic, but so is not blaming religion at all.

Atheism is the lack of belief in gods. It's hard to argue that someone went to war or comitted genocide based on the lack of belief in something. No war I've ever heard of has been fought to spread a lack of belief.

The anti-religious dogma of communism isn't effectively different than the anti-religion dogma of religion towards other faiths—your beliefs bad, mine good. The lack of a supernatural god seems quite inconsequential seeing how god-like Mao and Stalin were in many respects, and how dogmatic their teachings were. North Korea is a good modern example of how this works. It's not because of atheism that North Koreans risk their lives to save a portrait of Dear Leader, it's because of the very dogmatic, unquestioning system that can make religion fuel wars and oppression.

What happens when you write a parking ticket for cars with those plates? I suggest something similar happens here. It's a system that works fairly well in other parts of the world, like London and Stockholm. There's no reason it can't work in the US as well.

If it works like I think, I'd say it's a good thing. The Øresund Bridge between Sweden and Denmark is entirely user financed, despite being built by the respective governments. It seems fairer to let actual users pay for infrastructure like this than to take it from taxes that can be better spent on other things that can't pay for themselves so easily.

Good point. You might add The Big Bang Theory, CSI and Futurama to a list of shows popular with viewers and ciritics.

Before anyone points out the science in these shows isn't real science, I'd like to point out that neither was the science in Star Trek. And yet it inspired plenty of people who went on to real science in some form.

We are talking about Europeans here (see the comment I replied to), a category in which both Germans and Polish fall. People you are culturally and geographically close to (as you yourself point out) can be described as your own.

You should carefully consider the sordid history of US wars and interventions (installing friendly tyrants to do your genocides for you), as well as the high horse you're on.