The constitution mentions baring arms as part of an organised militia, but that doesn't seem to be what they are trying to do.

No, the Constitution does not. It mentions the militia as the REASON that "the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed", and that's all.

Note that even if it did, the Militia Act (which is still in force), REQUIRES every able-bodied man to own a firearm suitable for militia use. Which would be a selective-fire M4/M16 equivalent these days (you want common ammo and magazines, so my mini-14 (5.56 also, but not magazine-compatible with the M16) wouldn't cut the mustard.

So, if you want to translate "shall not be infringed" to apply only to the militia, tell me, do YOU own the firearm you are required to own as part of the militia (which you are, by definition)?

The driver uses a joystick to control a robot arm which grabs and dumps each container. If you position your trash can where the robot arm can't grab it (like putting it too close to another trash can), then your trash doesn't get picked up that week.

I recently had occasion to be awake insanely early and was shocked to discover that we have the same sort of thing here. I would never have suspected it, have never heard anything about it on the news.

It's possible that the vehicle I saw was an isolated case, though. Perhaps they bought one or two to try them out before making a larger purchase (or not).

Unless your link is bad, what you read there is NOT "these rules". It is a description of what the "rules" are meant to accomplish.

And even if these are the "rules" you think they are, note that they specifically set aside the question of how to actually pay for this regulation for discussion at a later time.

For the record, I'm pretty much indifferent to the whole issue, as long as it doesn't increase my monthly internet bill. Though I do find myself curious how you can have tiered service (pay X for Ymbits/sec throughput, or pay 2X for twice that) under these guidelines, since they explicitly disallow paying extra for faster service.

Also for the record, I expect that within a year, it WILL increase my monthly internet bill. I've never met a bureaucrat yet that didn't like a few more dollars of taxes collected.

On the other hand, humans and dinosaurs cohabit right now. I'm looking at a Cyanocitta cristata (bluejay) out my back window right now.

Yes, bluejays are dinosaurs, at least since they moved Aves into Dinosauria.

Which makes the fundies right for the wrong reasons. It would drive them even more crazy if you pointed out that birds evolved from dinosaurs, eh?

(BTW, there were no WMDs.)

Chemical weapons are WMD's. Whether they should be so included or not is debatable, but they ARE listed as a type of WMD.

And there is no doubt whatsoever that Saddam was using chemical weapons on his Kurdish population.

In other words, yes, there were WMD's.

Don Quichote

Don Quixote. Or possibly Don Quichotte, if you're an opera fan.

Or were you referring to Donald Quichote? If so, my bad....

I suspect that your problem was that you were talking to the Feds regularly. Your average American citizen hardly ever encounters, much less has to deal with, a Federal agent/officer.

Noone gets prosecuted for failing to register for the draft, since it's impossible to prove that they knew they were required to do so.

Until and unless we actually start conscription up again (WW3, maybe?) it won't be an issue.

Are people living in the Chernobyl area? No? THAT is my point.

Yes, actually a few are.

Illegally mind you, but so what? The only real problem with living there is the law against it and a slightly increased chance of thyroid cancer (for values of "slightly increased" that are smaller than your chances of increased lung cancer deaths living near a coal-fired plant)

Kuwait also. Had to go there once upon a time (ten or eleven years back), they took my passport on arrival, and gave it back when they were ready to let me leave.

Needless to say, I haven't been back, and have no intentions of ever going back.

So, tell me about the number of fatalities associated with coal power. Include coal-mining deaths, since that's the only reason for them.

I note that there was a coal-mining accident in Ukraine the other day. It killed 30 people. Just that one accident.

Chernobyl killed about 60. Over the period since the accident, since that includes thyroid cancer deaths that are estimated to have happened due to the accident.

Oh, and since Chernobyl, the USA alone has suffered in excess of 830 coal mining deaths (in excess because I don't want to find a breakdown of 1986 coal mining deaths by month/day to allow a more exact number. But 1987 to 2014 add up to more than 830 by themselves).

So, coal is definitely safer. It pollutes, it does the CO2 thing, and it kills more people in normal operations that the worst nuclear disaster in history. Yeah, definitely safer...

Oh, and did you know that wildlife in the Chernobyl area is in much better shape than outside the exclusion zone?

WTF did they put those plants so close to the water? What would it have cost to build the very same plants only fifty feet higher, just a little further inland?

If I were guessing (and I am), I'd guess that the Japanese didn't want the plant anywhere near where people actually lived, so they put it as far away as feasible. Which happened to be on the coast.

Note that a quick check of maps shows that the plant was about as far from the surrounding towns as it was possible to be - inland would have put it closer to several towns.

Yes, sometimes fear of a thing can cause more problems than the thing itself....

Already two guys playing the "welp that's what they're supposed to do!" card.

This statement makes me curious - what DO you think spy agencies are supposed to do?

Do you think they're a form of welfare (providing jobs to people to do nothing)?

Apparently, the "scientfiically verifiable theory of morals" (exact phrase from the book) proves that the way to keep society from collapsing is through corporal punishment in schools and public flogging, just like there is NO way to housetrain a puppy without hitting it.

No, what it attempts to prove is that an arbitrary transition based on age from "slap on the wrist" as punishment for a particular crime to "execution" for the same crime is insane.

Do try to keep in mind when the book was written, and how society behaved then....