The laws should be identical to the extent possible, between different forms of currency.

So, your average C-Store should be required by law to accept Japanese Yen or the Sudanese Pound?

That aside, doesn't the Federal Government get to decide what's money and what's not? Didn't think it was the business of State governments to be regulating money....

Iraq on the basis of made-up "evidence" of non-existing weapons of mass destructions

You are probably unaware that chemical weapons are defined as WMDs in all the treaties related to WMDs.

And you are likely also unaware that Hussein used chemical weapons against his Kurdish population.

You are most likely also unaware that some chemical weapons were found when the US Army moved into Iraq.

Note that all those things were mentioned in the news at the time (at the time meant the Clinton Presidency in the first two cases, the Bush one for the third case), but presumably you don't (or can't) read the news either.

Which is why, presumably, you're still blathering about non-existant WMDs in Iraq.

Interesting you should say that when Musk has the cheapest space launch capabilities in the world, is in the process of making his first stage reusable (and thus cheaper still), is in the process of man-rating a seven-man capsule that will be reusable and will cost less to launch than the three-man Soyuz, and is developing a heavy-lift launcher that can put more payload into orbit than Shuttle ever could.

And all on his own dime....

SpaceX has scheduled eleven launches over the next several years with the US Government as the customer (ISS resupply missions).

In addition, it has 17 launches scheduled for other customers (private satellite launches).

So, no, SpaceX doesn't have to do space tourism, nor do asteroid mining, nor make all their money being a government contractor. What they are is a LAUNCH company. They don't do payloads, they just put other people's payloads into orbit for them cheaply.

It should be noted that deficits for Obama's years in office amount to $4T to $6T. And those had nothing to do with our wars.

It should also be noted that unless we're counting Vietnam, Korea, and WW2, we haven't had $4T to $6T in war costs. Military budgets were higher as a result of Iraq and Afghanistan, but you'd have to count the entire military budget as "war costs" to reach even $4T, much less $6T.

It should also be noted that we're making absolutely no attempt to "pay down" our debts. The National Debt goes up every year, by rather more than $500B (rather more than $1T during most of Obama's terms).

Monopolies are the free market in action.

There are "natural monopolies" in the real world. An example would be that "last mile" thing - it makes very little sense for seventeen competing companies to all run fibre to every house in a city.

"Natural monopolies" should be the province of government.

Other than the "natural monopolies", pretty much every monopoly exists as a result of government regulation imposing draconian startup penalties on newcomers. Frequently as a result of a business bribing government to impose those barriers, but when you have a government that can do anything you desire, it's going to be bribed to do what someone other than you desires also....

"spazzies"? Really? You know, before the car accident that screwed me up, I was perfectly normal. Now that they've done surgery to correct the issue, I'm perfectly normal, with a little extra titanium hardware. We're all one car accident away from having the same issues. That is, unless you never leave your mother's basement.

the potential dangers to both humans and humanities infrastructure

If the humanities infrastructure suffers, no doubt there'll be fewer English majors, and more CS majors, so it'll be a good thing, right?

Or did someone mean "humanity's infrastructure"? Yes, I know, "my people don't do editing"....

We'll get more results by using 20% of the money to expand SpaceX contracts, and applying the other 80% toward deficit reduction.

80% of SLS devoted to deficit reduction is a trivial change in the deficit (Better to split it between SpaceX and Orbital Sciences and mission development. Allowing $3B per year for mission development, that leaves enough to pay for development of Falcon9R, Falcon9 Heavy, and Orbital's equivalents.

Or just buy Dragon flights from SpaceX - $5B per year would pay for a Dragon launch every couple weeks.

Or an equivalent number of Falcon9R launches for unmanned missions. Or a Falcon9 Heavy every other month....

Ya.. There are are a bunch of whiny bitches here. :) The same ones who complain about kids, or the fact that I bypassed the lines in the courtesy wheelchair, because I couldn't walk through an airport.

Thanks. I am so delighted it got fixed. It only took about 1.5 years and a half dozen "expert" doctors to find one who knew what he was doing. I had sympathy for people who couldn't get around before. Now I have a *lot* more.

Or problem is we put people into positions of power who developed their sense of morality at a time when "The Nazis" were still a valid political party and we didn't generally allow African Americans into the military yet.

And in 50 years, we'll be putting people into positions of power who believe something that is a very fashionable idea in 2014. No idea what it will be, but since we pick our leadership from among the elderly, and develop our ideas of what's good, right and proper during our youth, it's inevitable.

Note also, for reference, the "Buffalo Soldiers". They were around from the end of the Civil War (formed in 1866). There were Negro regiments during the Civil War as well.

It should be noted also that the 9th and 10th Cavalry, as well as other Negro regiments existed through WW2 until the military was integrated during the Korean War (considerably before the rest of US society).

and we're not really an apex predator either.

Yes, actually we are.

A very efficient one, at that, being omnivorous and all. It lets us get past that boom/bust cycle that so many predatory species have to live with....

one of the tenants of punctuated equilibrium

I had no idea that punctuated equilibrium was renting out its spare rooms.

Or did you mean "tenets"?

I had no idea we were supposedly responsible for the extinction of mammoth.

Why not? We've had evidence that we ATE them going back to the 1800's.

The early 1800's

Only if you're lucky. Well, I think SW does that. No other airlines I fly do. I don't really care about kids. My ears have never really tolerated flying much, so I have to use the pressure relieving earplugs. Wearing noise cancelling headphones over them, I can barely tell the engines are running, much less screaming children. :)