They need the agreements so that they can hash out how to allow trade for large multi-national corporations, while forbidding it to all private individuals, because allowing individuals to import things without barriers would lead to anarchy... or something like that.... For example, In Canada our auto manufacturers can produce their cars anywhere in the world and ship them in to the country, due to various free trade agreements they can often do this without any tariffs getting in their way. However as a consumer it is illegal for me to buy a car in a different country and import it myself. (with some small exceptions for cars from the USA, however even then the auto manufacturers write the list of which cars are allowed to be imported)
We have similar rules for many different industries, automotive is just one of the most obvious ones. Remember, "Free" trade is never the goal of any of these agreements, increased regulation for consumers, coupled with job movement to lower cost jurisdictions, combined with fewer trade barriers for multi-national corporations is what you can expect every single time.

This really is simple. If you believe in creationism you are not scientifically literate, saying that some of these people got the other questions right doesn't change the fact that they proved in the one question that they do not take science seriously. That said, belief in evolution, does not preclude scientific illiteracy, this is a topic with enough publicity that people who are clueless may still come down on the right side.

Knowing how to work within the system to change the system seems brilliant to me.

[quote] Will the Nissan Leaf Take On the Tesla Model S At Half the Price?[/quote]
Falf the price, and at the batteries they're considering, half the range.

[quote] So it looks like the Leaf might get up to 150 miles of range, possibly by the 2016 model year. The range increase will come from a larger battery pack, possibly 36 or 42 kWh, and more energy-dense cells.[/quote]
The Tesla comes with a 60 or 85 kWh pack, looks great, and is a luxury sports sedan. The upgraded leaf will still have half the range of the Tesla, and none of it's style.

There's only one reason people choose the leaf over the Tesla, and that's because they can't afford the Tesla. I understand, it's not cheap, but you can't claim that the two are in the same category any more than you can compare the Nissan Sentra to the Mercedes S class.

I wish, but the Canadian government doesn't have a track record of using anything but strong words against the US in these sorts of disputes.

CarPlay is likely to assume integration with an iphone. fewer consumers have iphones than have non-iphones. Why do you think most people would demand a system that is unlikely to work well with their phones?

I never once said it's something that just happens and then that's it. I said it's a horrible, horrible crime. You even agree with my point in that quote, you say that "some women recover okay". Please show me even one murder victim that has "recovered okay". I'm well aware that people (not just women!) can be highly traumatized and have massive psychological problems following a rape, and for years, or decades later, sometimes for their whole life, in fact I have met several of these people, and even provided medical care for some of them. That said, they get to do that because they are still alive. If you ask many rape victims what they were thinking during the rape it is frequently along the lines of "please don't kill me!"

I think rape is one of the worst crimes possible. But it is not murder, and considering it as such does nobody any favours.

It wasn't me who compared the USA to China, Mexico, and Russia, countries with massive social problems, including poverty like you have never seen or experienced.

I wanted to give the USA the benefit of the doubt and compare them to countries with very similar demographics, diversity, and physical characteristics. You decided that was too much to aspire to, and that the USA should be content because it's better then China, Mexico, and Russia. Use whatever terms you want to describe it, but I think you could aim higher.

You talk about diversity, Canada and many parts of Europe are just as diverse as the US, the difference lies in less of an "us vs them" mentality (there are no "african-canadians" "italian-canadians" etc, they're all just Canadian)

You talk about large geography. Canada and Australia both have that covered.
You talk about urban density. Europe has you beat.
You talk about rural areas. Canada and Australia have you beat.
You talk about illegal immigrants from poor nations adjacent. Australia has a huge problem here with boatloads of people trying to sneak in from nearby Asian countries, Much of europe shares borders with countries rife with poverty.

You're making excuses because you don't want to fix your mess.

But god forbid (sometimes literally) that you do anything to solve these issues by helping make education and healthcare more accessible to the poor, or work on the huge income inequality problems, or limit access to firearms...

And yet the simple solutions to these problems are ignored and shunned by americans. "Blacks" kill more people because they are on average poorer, with less access to a quality education and limited access to health care (three of the top 4 items I listed that are different in the USA from the rest of the developed world)

"preventing crime" does NOT mean more cops or more guns, it does not mean more laws, or "tough on crime" legislation, it means getting to the root of the problems and solving those.

My bad, I'll stop confusing the USA with a first world country.

You could check with the rest of the western world though that have a murder rate less than half of that in the US despite large rural areas, dense urban areas, rich people, and poor people. Seems everyone except America can figure this out to some extent, maybe see what the rest of the western world does differently than the US (most likely accessible education, universal health care, less inequality, and that dreaded gun control)

Afghanistan actually was doing better than the USA until 2012. And Iran is still better. As is Egypt. So I'm actually thinking it's more like:
[Places where there are wars or massive corruption, including the USA]
[The rest of the world]

Too bad Americans fight tooth and nail against anything that could help improve their odds. (Education, health care, income equality, gun control)

The US murder rate is more than double that of the rest of the western world. Despite the four points I listed being the biggest differences between your country and the other Western democracies. Your personal refusal to even consider any possible improvement in that situation is endemic of the problem that causes your chance of being murdered to be more than double that of any other western citizen.

I'm glad you're OK with your odds, after all, you choose them.

If you read my post, I didn't point the blame "just at guns", in fact they were last on my list after education, health care, and inequality. However now that you bring it up,. Evidence from the rest of the world indicates that guns are a problem, not a solution. I'm not willing to say how much of an effect they have, as I believe that it is the culture, more than the firearms themselves that is the problem, the guns are just a symptom of that culture.
Why the USA is so determined to avoid universal health care and good, accessible, education, is beyond me though, those four items I listed are the biggest differences between the USA and the rest of the western world where murder rates are less than half what they are in the USA, trying to follow those good examples set elsewhere could only help Americans, it's too bad Americans don't want the help.