Okay get your political avatars correct. Jerry Brown is governor Moonbeam and he'd be much better suited for Mayor McCheese's position on the moon.

So nukes at 10 paces then? Dawn? Choice of weapons: I'll take three W88s..

You're suffering from quoteitis. I suggest a regimen of strong booze.

Regulation for the public benefit = good. Examples: Public Utilities, Healthcare, Agriculture, Air Quality/Environmental Protection.
Regulation for the sake of Regulation = bad. Examples: 70,000 + pages of IRS Regulations and 30,000 pages of tax code written by special interests and bureaucrats.

It's not rhetoric when it's fact. Railroads have a very poor history when it comes to dealing fairly with the public and there was a real threat based upon facts and incidents that led to the regulations but if the people believe that the huge tracts of land that were granted to the industry didn't come with strings, then they're sadly mistaken. Hence they were probably more unfairly regulated and tasked with mandates including mandatory passenger service. It was for the public good and for fostering growth in the country. To see how bad things were if a Railroad dominated a region, read "The Octopus: A story of California" by Frank Norris. While it fictionalized the struggles that were created by the Southern Pacific-Central Pacific Railroad in California in the years following completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. It was the Mussle Slough incident and five people who resisted the Railroad were killed. The Southern Pacific-Central Pacific controlled the rails, the heavy wagons and the ferries. They also had huge tracts of land and would charge whatever they wanted. It was so bad that to a point that you couldn't move any freight in California without them getting a cut. So the California government and the feds stepped in. A lot of the CFRs covering Railroads are there for safety for example boilers on steam locomotives that could explode if not properly maintained or tested or care for the widows and children of workers killed while working on the Railroad. Those are actually good regulations but as you indicate if it keeps moving regulate it but we can't just get rid of all of it not without suffering the repercussions of businesses left unchecked.

Regrettably the Cato institute somehow thinks that all of that unnecessary regulation and government interference is bad, too much can be very bad while not enough is the same that's where the balance has to be maintained. So if you want a true Business friendly environment go back to the 1880s in California and let me know how that works for you. As a Conservative myself I have to shake my head at some of the horseshit that spouts out of the Cato institute because their way of thinking isn't even close to mine.

Is this distributed by E-Mail, a bug in Windows? IE, Firefox etc.?

You know it amazes me to still here this from folks. I'll let you in on a little secret. The reason Amtrak was formed was because the Penn Central was bleeding money and they had the Northeast Corridor (NEC). Since a lot of Congressmen and Senators actually rode the train into DC this could be a problem if the Penn curtailed or discontinued service. Of course it couldn't because it had a long standing agreements with the government to provide passenger service. As a matter of fact all of the huge land tracks that were granted to railroads in this country included little hooks for passenger rail service. Sure, the railroads from post WWII were losing money on passenger service because people were buying cars and the feds were sponsoring airports and the national highway system. But instead of letting the railroads drop unprofitable lines, the government pushed them to continue their agreements. The government regulated Railroads and some thing airlines are the most regulated, think again. The CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) covering Railroads is extensive and still in force even in a deregulation climate. Some of the passenger services became shadows such as running an RCD (Rail Car Diesel) as a train for example instead of a multi-car train. The point is the government has been involved in Railroads in this country for a very long time. Republican or Democratic administrations, it doesn't matter hell the PRR received a $77m loan for electrification from the new deal which was a chunk of change back then. For comparison the Hoover dam only cost $46m during the same era.

So in the late 60s the Penn Central now with more absorbed Railroads consolidated and more miles of track and debt tied on started losing money, so much so that it filed for bankruptcy in 1970. This sent a shock wave up and down the east coast. Backroom deals were being hashed because a Federal Bankruptcy judge would allow the Penn Central to abandon less profitable passenger service, even if they had contracts and deals to provide it. What would the east coast people do and more importantly how would the Senators and Congressman who'd become accustomed to getting to / from DC quickly do? So a backroom deal was done and Amtrak was created but when other Railroads heard about the deal they said "hey, no fair" and lobbied their Congressmen and Senators and that's why boys and girls all interstate passenger rail service went to Amtrak as part of the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970 Of course the NEC was untouched but most of the country lost passenger service. At that point the Feds were 100% in the Railroad business and because it was set up as a for profit corporation under the DOT that meant that nobody in Amtrak could ever do anything like drop or add routes without bureaucrats or congressional approval. That's not a company, that's a federal service and more importantly Amtrak is the Federal Governments toy railroad with special earmarks having been placed in front if it all along the way to add or improve service. That's all politics and Amtrak could be viable if it was allowed to drop everything but the NEC but that's not going to happen and really, think about this: Amtrak's total budget request for 2014 was $2.6 billion. Considering how much money we put into horseshit in this country that's not a lot of money but if you want Amtrak to be a independent corporation, which it isn't, it has to have an independent board who aren't appointed by the DOT and it has to be given enough funding to stretch into profitability and also, regrettably it needs to abandon routes that don't make financial sense.

That would be the vivid or playboy channel if you want fucking commercials.

Political Correctness has hit comic books! Whoda thunk it. Create a female character if you want but don't superimpose a female gender on a male character. That is unless Thor is now going to have a sex change? Wait Norse God, Denmark. It makes sense now! Thor will undergo a sex change operation, talk about predictable.

After listening to this call I'm just laughing because I've been experiencing this for years. It's all about maintaining those subscribers and it shows that the Comcast rep was probably a used car salesman in a prior life. Maybe he's going back there after this episode but who knows. What's funny is that people are actually surprised about this because every major company in the US, especially those who sell subscription based services, have these kinds of last ditch sales people to keep you hooked up. It's all about customer relationship management 101, keep them in the relationship.

This guy from Comcast represents once again while consolidation in the telecom and cable industries is a bad thing. Plus with Comcast controlling NBC and all its subsidiaries we now get such great entertainment as "Sharknado 2", this isn't better its worse.

Oh Snap! I forgot Plan 9 will fix it all!

Yes and Solaris will once again rule the data center! You forgot that part.. ;-)

I agree with almost everything there however MSFT's core is Office/Exchange, Windows is a vehicle to get you to Office. If Office were really on Linux I think you'd see Windows practically disappear. I don't think they can move quickly enough but they're not going away anytime soon. IBM on the other hand will be out of business or a frail shell of its former self. The C-Level at IBM are idiots and it's being proven with bad market strategies and eroding margins. Cutting yourself to prosperity doesn't work. Pruning poor / nonperforming units can make sense but at some point you have to ask "Are we cutting our nose off to spite our face?"

I use and support Microsoft products all the time but unfortunately I see more and more businesses out there looking for alternatives and cost reduction. SO yes while they're still selling they're not in the dominant position anymore. Windows Phone compared to Android is "meh" sorry, it's not a religious thing but yes there are Android handsets out there that are excellent value. The reason your windows 8 phone was so cheap is because MSFT is subsidizing the crap out of it so there's more impact on the bottom line. More and more enterprises including the Feds are going to cloud based solutions, Google Apps for example and while MSFT is starting to move in that direction they're not going to be displacing any of the big folks anytime soon. Yes Office/Exchange are big sellers but have you seen Libre Office or any of the other offerings? If not you may be surprised.

Yeah it doesn't make sense but the TFA says the Nokia handset folks but I'd have to think about the memo with the buzzword generator on at 11 it'll be across the board to wake up the troops. Sure, it'll crush morale and it'll negatively effect the processes that are in place but unfortunately it seems more and more that CEOs want to cut themselves to eek out as much profit as possible. Forget new products, innovation is something they'll buy and integrate.