The difference is that the existence of birthers is actually a pretty good boost to the Democratic base. "Look at these crazy Republicans, they're so nuts they think he's not an American citizen! Donate to help us fight the hordes of ignorance!".

This comes off a lot more like "People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook." And then cue the missing evidence. Nixon was sunk by less than twenty minutes of audio. Two years of email?

After all, in Washington they're not bothered if you're corrupt. They're bothered if you're corrupt and can't hide it.

Roux-en-Y is a weight loss surgery, so there's no reason to believe it would do anything for a type I. Just out of curiosity - obviously, your experience is your experience - how low was "minimal" carbs? I generally aim for under 20 g/day.

VPN is your friend.

It's the "some" that's troublesome. Look, you want to require free service for all nonprofits? Fine. No problem. Some? Now you've got everything you need for corruption.

Type 2 is actually fairly easy to cure if you want to get rid of it.

Stop eating digestible carbohydrates.

If you wanted to make people fat, the Food Pyramid is a damned fine way to do it.

The guy who flies a private plane has already undergone an FAA medical exam. In my state, at least, the medical exam and a slightly more strenuous road test is the only real difference between a private driver's license and a taxi/limo driver's license (vehicles holding 16 or more people are different, which is why they make 15-passenger vans). That's not a big barrier to entry.

I get (and mostly agree with) your point, but a license to drive a cab/limo is barely more expensive than a regular one - in my state, $5 more every four years. It does require a medical exam and a scheduled road test, but those are one-time expenses. It's not like a year-long training program.

That's more like UberBlack and UberSUV. We're talking UberX, where you're picked up by a normal person using their personal vehicle.

You certainly do where I live in the US. A standard individual car insurance policy does not cover commercial activity - for example, delivering pizzas.

Because we routinely hold people who engage in some activity for profit to a higher standard than those that do it for fun. It's the difference between flying yourself and running an air taxi, between having friends over for dinner and opening a restaurant.

UberX is an enabler for unlicensed car service, but their Black and SUV are registered livery operators.

They're not cheaper than taxis. They're at best roughly competitive. What you get with Uber is two things: their Black and SUV service is much nicer than a taxi for little more, and UberX should - in theory, due to congestion pricing - insure that there's always a ride available, even if it isn't cheap.

Of course they are. Just look at air travel: people complain about small seats, long lines, and all the nickel-and-dime fees, but they keep on buying the cheapest seat available. OTOH you can pay more and get a first-class seat that has none of those problems and includes priority boarding and security screening. You get the service you pay for.

No, they don't.