"If its so fucking efficient then why do they keep needing to take other people's money to make it practical?"

It's because too many lazy assholes won't get out of their cars and take the bus. And yeah, government funds are inevitably mismanaged. The truth is, most government funds are intermingled, whatever their intended use was. That's why Social Security is "broke." They spent the money on other shit.

Yeah, and if you think it's a bitch to replace a burnt-out tube in your amp...

Yep. This is what happens when metaphors are taken literally. It's a bad precedent for the next "War on [blank]"

Yeah! They could call it the Choco Taco, or something. Eh, it would never work....

I haven't watched television at home for decades, don't listen to commercial radio, and have used ad blocking almost from the day ads began to appear on the web. I hate advertising. Yet, I see enough advertising in my daily life that I'm aware of brands that I've never used, and probably never will. People like to think they're immune to advertising, (I was one of them), but the fact is, we are all influenced in some degree by advertising.

Exactly. The permission will be buried at the end of a long Terms of Service Agreement the customer has to click on.

You know, I just had the experience last night, of not being able to use my PS3 until I downloaded and installed an update. And to get the update, I of course had to click on the Terms of Service Agreement. It's not like you have much of a choice.

Yes, this. I have long thought that the DEA's focus should be turned away from recreational drugs, and towards antibiotics. Antibiotic abuse, (mostly by factory farming operations), is a very real threat to society, unlike recreational drug use, plus, the drug warriors wouldn't have to fight legalization out of fear of losing their jobs.

And yes, we need to reduce our germophobia, as well.

Yes, I was going to add that, and 'government and corporate snooping' to divinity's comment. Remember when paranoids used to think their TV was spying on them? Their worse nightmare is coming true. The time is coming when you won't be able to buy anything but a "smart TV." And, we've seen the stuff they're already trying pull with those. It will likely be the same with other appliances.

A lot of the "teeth" have been removed from many regulators over the years, in order to prevent their "interfering" with Big Business. That also helps explain part of the recent financial crisis, as banking regulators were carefully de-fanged over the last thirty years. Also, what Trepidity said.

Yes, there is an obstructionist Congress, but there are many areas where the president could've acted freely and unilaterally, (to keep the campaign promises that got him elected in the first place), but didn't. He could've been light-years better than his predecessor, but in fact, his record is worse in many instances. I hope the examples are glaring enough for even the most ardent supporter not to need them listed here. The sad truth is that, even our team lies about campaign promises.

I agree with most of what you say, but we at least know that the condition of our early planet was (self-evidently) quite favorable. Still, that tells us almost nothing, since we have no idea how life actually formed, or why. Can't wait till someone figures that out.

The center of the galaxy is not considered a habitable zone. Nor is the outer part. If you divided the galaxy into a three-ring bullseye, you want the middle (second) ring. If your looking for other life in any galaxy, the center's not the direction to head. We are in the Goldilocks zone.

Seems whenever I have mod points, I can find nothing to mod up. Wish I had some now.

We have no idea how life began. We have no idea whether or not the formation of life was a unique event. People are using math to extrapolate the number of possible civilizations but, just because two times two is four, doesn't mean you have four of anything. It is ridiculous to make predictions based upon a single data point of which almost nothing is known.

Yeah, I think I have quite enough random cars jumping in front of me as it is. Of course, if you're on foot and need a vehicle, they simply do not spawn near you. But get in a car, and suddenly the streets are full. I wonder if they're referring to the way traffic spawns when you're not in it, say, as seen from a chopper?
I'm glad they're porting it to PC, though. I'd like to get my roommate into it, and be able to play at the same time. But I'd really prefer that they fixed some of the problems they already have, (freezing issues, few Survivals, etc...).

Hey, that actually makes sense!