Your comment makes no sense. I've given a generally accepted definition of capitalism. Look it up. You apparently tack on other stuff such as competitive markets. Competitive markets are not at the core of capitalism (private ownership is), and I would argue that they're in principle independent. You can have capitalist anti-competitive enterprises (monopolies) and anti-capitalist competitive enterprises (your co-op example).

Personally I believe that competitive markets trump capitalism, and the reason that (American) people like to use the word capitalism is probably to stick it to Marx (who made the word popular).

No, you're wrong. Capitalism is the system where the means of production are in the hands of individuals. That's it. Free market (or better, competitive markets) are wholly independent of this notion. You can have a capitalist society that has no free trade. In effect, capitalist societies inherently converge to monopolies if there are no disruptive events (technology breakthroughs) or government regulation (promoting competitiveness, combatting price-fixing and other monopolistic practices).

More likely: capitalism has moved pollution to a place where it's cheaper.

So what is it: are scientists left wing liberal hippies that hate money, or are they grubby capitalist pigs that 'prove' whatever the bowl of money wants to get proven? You can't have it both ways!

Yes it can make you a sandwich.

Small correction. If the NSA is getting this info from Irish servers, they are absolutely allowed to get it according to American law. It is of course absolutely illegal according to Irish law. Next up: drone strikes in Ireland, there is no law that forbids that either.

Taxis in the Netherlands are generally great (though expensive), with the notable exception of Amsterdam. There they refuse you service if the trip is not long enough to their liking. They are typically rude, and oftentimes armed. It's fun to go to the taxi-stand at Amsterdam central station and notice the permanent presence of at least two police cars there. They're not there to protect taxi drivers from the population, that's for sure.

I've taken UberPop in Amsterdam and it's great. Unfortunately, the Uber drivers need to ask you to sit in front, to reduce the risk of being attacked by vigilante taxi drivers. It's a breath of fresh air in a thoroughly unpleasant market, and I hope legislation gets passed soon to make it legal.

Your problem lies in confusing cause and solution. Yes, there's a problem with CO2, please recognize that so that we can have a meaningful discussion about the solution. As long as people like you are fighting the causal analysis because you don't like the solutions that others are proposing, you are not contributing in a meaningful way. You're just stalling.

Recognizing that we're in trouble does not equate buying into any solution. It is however close to criminal to fight the analysis at this stage.

Yes, and all life is descendent of an unbroken string of lucky breaks. Every single one of our ancestors, going back to the origin of life 4 billion years ago, was able to reproduce at least once to produce each and every organism on earth today. Given this, it is clear that we've been bred for luck. Nothing bad can ever happen to us.

Well, he screwed up the fact that the US is screwing up their allies, so that makes him a meta-traitor?

The audience of this site are "Nerds". "Stuff that matters" is measured in the amount of comments a story gets. So whether this is a relevant story, we're soon to find out. Maybe try to get a sport score story in here at some time, it might matter...

I am NOT going out on the ledge.

However, if you want to change the way you are treated, it's probably the only way.

Good for you, though you'll soon find out that your simple act of tolerance will be deemed offensive by the majority of your clientele. Bye-bye business.

Your argument breaks down when enough people find the act of 'inclusion' offensive in its own right. Say I do start a wedding shop that caters for gays somewhere deep in bigot land. Although on the surface I'm serving a larger potential market, the religious bigots will avoid my business as the plague, simply because I also serve a group they don't like. They will also refuse to do business with anyone that dares to shop at my place. Because I'm Satan. Net result, I only get custom from the few gays and libs that dare to confront the majority, and I'm bankrupt in a few months. Status quo is maintained and will not be broken due to the tyranny of the majority. Study segregation a bit to see how this works.