But that's exactly what they are, if they do business with the public. When you incorporate a business, the government grants you special rights, like being able to protect your personal assets from the liabilities of your business, and having access to a stable legal system to enforce the contracts that you make. In return, you have certain responsibilities about how you conduct your business; e.g., things covered by consumer protection laws, the way you keep your accounts, and not discriminating against classes of customers and employees out of your own bigotry. You want the advantages and protections of an incorporated business without having to follow the rules of a civilized society? Tough shit.

If a bunch of Republican senators could get together and write a letter outlining the details of these abuses, I'm sure there wouldn't be any consequences (to themselves) whether the spying is classified or not. Plus, it would be a great way to limit the powers of the federal government and stick it to Obama at the same time!

Another advantage being that your wallet won't sit there alerting everyone to the fact that its owner isn't anywhere nearby...

Well, you could try making a solid, robust scientific argument that accounts for existing as well as new data. But if instead you want to put your faith in PR firms that are paid to manufacture public doubt on behalf of industries with vested interests, then you're building a political controversy and not a scientific one.

...you're not even allowed to talk about tooth decay.

Didn't RTFA, but... Age is a pretty big part of this formula. If you're 50, thats a hit of -200 points, which is half of the entire scale. So basically we've discovered that old people are more likely than young people to die in the next decade?

...you could just ask someone out that you meet in person, thus avoiding all of this investment of time and effort before you even know that there's going to be a basic mutual attraction. You're going to have to interact face-to-face eventually anyway.

What "leading climate researchers" said this? Citations needed. Did you hear this on Fox News, or are you just making it up?

Rising CO2 levels and climate change are politically controversial only because the fossil carbon industry hired a bunch of PR firms to sow public doubt. Who needs science, when industry PR is gospel?

I'm not sure what the point is here. Could it be:

• Some chemicals with unfamiliar-sounding names are harmless, therefore we should assume that all are?
• Warning labels about chemical hazards are stupid, because the public should be sufficiently educated about chemistry and toxicology to know if a compound is dangerous by it's name alone?
• Unfamiliar substances should be assumed to be safe unless we know otherwise with certainty?

Furthermore, if you use the name "di-hydrogen monoxide" for water, I'm going to assume you've had no chemistry beyond high school. No chemist would say "monosilicon dioxide" for quartz (SiO2) or "tri-iron tetra-oxide" for Fe3O4, for example. So if you're ridiculing people for not recognizing "dihydrogen monoxide", you're also looking like an noob to people who know better.

Ask them who had just been elected the last time oil prices collapsed, in late 2008.

But really, the GOP and the fossil carbon industry have been BFF for a long time. Collapsing prices is the last thing they want.

On the contrary, they'll be falling all over themselves to do it. We'd be talking about property rights that are granted by the existing government, rather than a previous one that was overthrown in a revolution. Property exists when a government pledges to defend your exclusive interest in something, and in general it's not guaranteed to survive a successful revolution. Or are you one of those people who thinks that property rights are granted by God?

Thank you - I see they've made that change with the latest revision.

That's why my hosts file includes these entries (among many others):

127.0.0.1 count.3721.yahoo.com
127.0.0.1 yahooads.valuead.com
127.0.0.1 yahoo.nuggad.net
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127.0.0.1 adserver.yahoo.com
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127.0.0.1 nz.adserver.yahoo.com
127.0.0.1 sg.adserver.yahoo.com
127.0.0.1 br.adserver.yahoo.com
127.0.0.1 cmk.tw.yahoo.overture.com
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127.0.0.1 dk.adserver.yahoo.com
127.0.0.1 eu-pn4.adserver.yahoo.com
127.0.0.1 fr.adserver.yahoo.com
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127.0.0.1 uk.adserver.yahoo.com
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127.0.0.1 visit.webhosting.yahoo.com #[WebBug]
127.0.0.1 geo.yahoo.com
127.0.0.1 cm.tw.overture.com #[cm.tw.g.ysm.yahoo.com]
127.0.0.1 cm.west.yahoo.overture.com
127.0.0.1 cmh.tw.yahoo.overture.com
127.0.0.1 cmx.tw.yahoo.overture.com
127.0.0.1 ad.antventure.com #[any-world.ngd.ysm.yahoodns.net]
127.0.0.1 ar.adserver.yahoo.com
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Unfortunately for resource conservation, that's about the gist of it. Modern capitalist economies require growth to survive. Once they go into deflation, investment stops and they fall into a downward spiral that's very difficult to escape (although massive public investment in global war has worked in the past). If you don't believe that deflation knocks out investment, I know some petroleum exploration companies that will eagerly take your money at the value they commanded when crude was still selling at $120/barrel.

If you want stability with a deflating fixed-supply currency like gold or bitcoin, you're going to have to consider a planned economy where production, prices, and wages are managed in fine detail, and hope that nothing unexpected happens to upset the five-year plans. The experience with these isn't very promising, however. Feudalism is another option that seems more acceptable (and maybe even desirable) to libertarians, or at least the ones that think they'll be living in the castle at top of the hill.

That's actually happened. Back in the 90s, before cell phones were widespread, you typically made calls using a phone card. The hotel I was staying at (in San Diego) would block these calls, trying to force guests to pay their insane long-distance fees instead. They released the block the first time I complained, but when it happened again the next day I packed my bags and changed hotels. A hassle for sure, but the new hotel was cheaper and nicer (right on Pacific Beach), and didn't block my calls.