Yes, you could have your mechanic come to the car and see the problem as it is occurring, and that would probably be a good idea, but that is not what the OP said. And, it would still be stupid for them to tow the car back (they should just drive it).

When I have had my car towed, the person driving the tow truck has not been there to diagnose problems with my car. He only want to move my car from where it was to where I wanted it to be.

And honestly, if I worked at a dealership and someone had a car towed in for a malfunctioning key fob when the car could easily have been driven then I would go ahead and open the 'idiot who ...' filing drawer and then figure out where to file it. Because it is going in there somewhere.

I don't know about you, but if my keyless entry is not working correctly but I could still get in and start the car manually, I think that I would DRIVE my car to the dealership instead of getting it towed.

Doing drugs is a choice. Being black is not. If I were black I might think your comparisons were insulting. Since I am not, I just think that they are inane. I do not want every drug to be legal in this country. I will support politicians who oppose making heroine, meth, and cocaine legal. Apparently that makes me evil and a scumbag in your eyes. I can live with that.

We live in a democracy. We, the people, have a right to use our government to discourage behavior that we deem detrimental to our society. The effort to build a better society is not "evil". In that effort we may sometimes do some things that turn out to actually make society worse (which you apparently label as "evil"), but that is part of the grand experiment. If you are never willing to chance making a mistake, then you will never be taking a chance to do anything good. I would only call it evil if we make no moves to rectify it when we realize our mistakes.

Now, I may agree with you that the efforts to prevent marijuana use are much more detrimental to society than the actual use itself. So, I believe that we should legalize it. But, I do not think we should legalize because of some weird theory that humans have an inalienable right to consume whatever they want. I do not believe that drug use is necessary to lead a fulfilling life. If you do believe that, then you should probably move to a country that agrees with you because I think that popular opinion is against you in the US.

It is the job of Congress to pass laws. It is the job of the President to enforce them. Yes, he could spend the next 4 years circumventing Congress to try to get pot (sort of) legalized. And then Congress would probably be (rightfully) offended at his power grab and pass a law making pot an illegal Schedule I substance just to spite him. Or, you could stop bitching about him not circumventing how our government is supposed to work for your pet issue and actually work towards getting a Congress elected to legalize it the RIGHT way. That is how democracy is supposed to work. A big issue like this would use up a lot of his political capital (look at how getting Obamacare passed has affected his ability to get things passed in Congress) and I don't think that marijuana is such a big issue right now that Obama should expend all of his political capital on it.

California's laws are bullshit to begin with. Legalized for "medical use" my ass. I have been there and seen the "doctors" who will give you a prescription IN THE DISPENSARY. If they want to legalize it, then they should. But, if they actually want to follow the laws on the books, then a lot of those dispensaries are breaking the spirit of the law if not the letter. If Obama starts going after people in Washington and Colorado, then I might say that he has overstepped (since the have actually legalized it). Maybe you want to pretend that California legalized it because legalization is your goal, but the California laws are bullshit and I can't fault Obama for fulfilling his DUTY to enforce the laws. I think what he has done has actually helped the legalization cause because it has shown how California's laws are fucked up (so that other states won't try the same half-assed laws).

Btw, I am in favor of legalizing pot. I am not in favor of halfway legalizing it and then doing half-assed enforcement. We should enforce the laws that we have. If we don't think they should be enforced, then we should change them. I want pot to be legal in fact, not just in practice.

Ahhh... the classical slippery slope argument. If we make this not-so-bad drug legal, then eventually we will make all the bad ones legal, and once that happens then it is guaranteed that we will eventually legalize raping babies.

If Pot is legalized, then Phillip-Morris SHOULD start growing marijuana and selling them. They are a business and a new market is opening up in their field. They would be stupid not to try to add it to their product line. Does that mean that cocaine, heroine, and LSD will be legalized? No. There are A LOT of people who believe that pot should be legalized but harder drugs should not be. They will most likely prevent harder drugs from being legalized for a long time (not arguing the merits of legalizing all drugs or not, just saying that your slippery slope argument is bullshit).

Most power companies are willing to pay more for solar power. Not only because it is green, but also because it is generated during the day when power companies have their peak demand. They have to power up their on-demand generators (usually natural gas) that are more expensive to operate, so any solar power they buy generally means they have to generate less of their most expensive power. Then you use power at night when the power companies are over-producing power so rates are at their cheapest. Net metering is actually pretty much a scam because you are giving them power when it is most expensive and getting it back when it is least expensive.

But, how much separation do you really need? From RTFA, I don't think that having oil mixed with the injected water would cause any problems. It would decrease the efficiency, but I would imagine that you could get the oil concentration below 5% pretty easily. And, at those concentrations it seems that the effect on efficiency would probably be negligible.

The House of Representatives controls the purse strings and it has been controlled by Republicans for the past 2 years. Have we passed a budget in that time? And why do you think we should trust republicans on fiscal matters. Don't forget that they gave us $5 trillion in debt under Bush when there wasn't a recession. And don't forget Romney's (who doesn't matter now, but still) "I will tell you the details of my plan after I get elected". If you want to argue that they all suck, then I probably can't argue with you. But, you seem to be arguing that Republicans are better and I don't know of many FACTS that back up that perception. Just out-dated stereotypes.

I agree. But, try to explain that to a Republican. They think that the only way for the economy to grow is for the rich ("job creators") to get richer.

I have found that a lot of conservatives are people who are trying to vote in their own self-interest. They aren't on welfare, social security, medicare, medicaid or food stamps so they are in favor of cutting those programs and reducing their own taxes. I instead believe that if the country does well, then I will have the opportunities to do well. So, I am in favor of strengthening our safety nets (though not enough to foster dependency) and reducing income (and wealth) inequality. Because, I think that will lead to a stronger country with a bigger middle class.

Speaking as an Obama supporter, I really did not like Pawlenty, mainly because I couldn't see him as president (I don't disagree with anything you said, though). But, I REALLY liked Huntsman. I can't say that I would have voted for him over Obama, because I believe that Obama has been a good president. But he is the republican that I would have been most likely to vote for. He was a moderate who was running his moderation as a strength. So, there is no way he could get anywhere in the Republican party, but I think that he would make a good democrat (and probably do well).

I briefly thought the same thing, but overall it would not have been good. The US government already can't get anything done. If Obama had actually lost the popular vote then he would have had almost zero mandate. So, while it would have been good to have some push for a national popular vote, the country has so many problems right now (fiscal cliff, slow improvement in the economy, debt) that we need to give our leaders a mandate to fix the problems.

When Obama took office, the deficit was over $1 trillion. Go talk to any economist and he will tell you that during a recession you should NEITHER reduce spending nor raise taxes. Otherwise you risk making things worse. And Greece is a perfect example of what happens when you try austerity during a downturn (the austerity made the downturn worse, so the revenues decreased right along with their reductions in spending). If you want to reduce the deficit then you have to reduce spending or raise taxes (or wait for the economy to get better to increase revenue). I have found it very ironic that Republicans keep screaming that we are going to be just like Greece, and then keep pushing for the policies that caused Greece's economy to collapse (austerity).

It is all relative. If Obama had come into office with a balanced budget, he would have been able to maintain a deficit of a few hundred billion dollars and still stimulated the economy. Instead, he had to tack on a few hundred billion onto the trillion dollar deficit. What is not fiscally responsible is living beyond our means and running up the debt when the economy is doing well ($5 trillion added to the debt 2000-2008). If you do that, then there is a LOT less flexibility to handle emergencies (and the 2008 financial crisis WAS an emergency) in the future.

There are many excellent reasons to think that Romney would not be a good president (47%, flip-flopping on every issue, refuse to tell us his plans, tax returns) but neither the mistakes he made as a kid nor the way in which he transported his dog are things that an intelligent voter should use to decide on the next president.