Its hard to convince Americans in general to wear seat belts.

Really? 87% of Americans wear them as of a couple years ago. Though young knotheads still wear them at a considerably lower rate than the national average, as do African-Americans (the young knotheads I understand, not sure why the African-Americans do it).

Never mind that mining is illegal [vice.com] under existing space treaty.

Actually, no. The Treaty in question makes it illegal for GOVERNMENTS to lay claim to celestial bodies. It doesn't appear to say much, if anything, about what private individuals do in space (probably because noone imagined the possibility of private individuals doing anything in space when the Treaty was made).

Note that it could be argued that property rights are granted by a government and so it is impossible for a private citizen/corporation to do anything in space without government approval, which would be tantamount to a treaty violation.

On the other hand, history is pretty much full of private individuals going out beyond the territories of any existing government, and doing pretty much what they liked there. Note the colonization of the Americas as an example.

What do you call the use of unchecked power, that hurts the system but might help your own causes, but destroys things otherwise? I call that immoral.

Usually I call that "government"....

In the broadest scope I've never understood why there has to be laws concerning marriage. It's a private contract.

Note that there are laws concerning private contracts in most countries.

I agree that marriage is just a contract between two people (note that I disagree with the contention that "love" has anything to do with marriage - no, you don't have to be "in love" to marry, nor does a marriage end just because you stop being "in love").

The devil, however, is in the details. What responsibilities does marriage imply (as a minimum, there are tax issues in most places), and what privileges does it grant (among others, there are medical issues most places - your spouse can make medical decisions on your behalf if you are incapable, for instance)? What are the limits on marriage (so, why limit it to two people, for instance)? And on and on.

Note that while some religions consider marriage a sacrament, there are very few that consider the religious ceremony legally binding in and of itself. And yes, that applies to most Christian sects (I used to belong to a moderately conservative branch of Christianity whose attitude toward marriage was "that's a State issue, but we'll perform the ritual for you AFTER you get the sanction of the State (marriage license))....

I'm wondering though if it isn't possible for the senators that want it passed to come back early and sneak it through before the senate is supposed to reconvene. I don't really know enough about procedural rules and whatnot to know if that is even possible.

Unless the Senators you speak of constitute a quorum, not even a ghost of a chance of it being legal. And if they have that many Senators who want to pass this, then they wouldn't need to bother playing games....

a second email address {that she denied having 2 emails prior to locating so make that 3 lies)

A second email address? Seems to me the email I address I saw mentioned was hrod17@clintonemail.com.

So, who picks hrod17 as their SECOND email address on a private domain? I know that when I was doing the same thing, I just stuck a "2" on the end of my original email address....

The article should have clarified that 417 million microbeads are, assuming the diameter of microbead is 0.2 millimeter, less than 400 liters, or approximately 100 gallons.

Less than four liters, not 400 liters.

Sudden, indeed.

a few quick calculations show that this particular area has caused a sea level rise of ~1/7th of a millimeter per year recently.

So, if it keeps up for the next seven thousand years, we'll see a meter of sea-level rise.

Color me unworried at the possibility that the ocean might be half an inch deeper by 2100....

But I don't think, such use makes them officially "hammers" and "anvils"

Hammer == rock you hit other rocks with.

Anvil == rock you hit with a hammer....

In other words, they found some rocks that were banged together. which is nice, but it's not the same as "tools". They MAY be tools. Or not. It would be nice to hear about some evidence they were DESIGNED for some particular purpose. Other than banging on some other rock.

What? You object to my parents/siblings keeping their secret ballots secret?

Or do you just object to them not brainwashing me to believe exactly the same things they believe?

Currently, Oregon has a $0.30 per gallon fuel tax. Plus conversion factors for unusual fuels.

This $0.015/mile tax is equivalent, therefore, to the rate you'd be paying if your car got 20 mpg.

So the volunteers will come out ahead if they have gas-guzzlers, and way behind if they have even reasonably fuel efficient vehicles.

And in exchange for higher taxes on driving, they get the privilege of providing Oregon information on how much they travel and WHERE THEY TRAVEL.

What could possibly go wrong with this idea?

Since 1978, utilities have been obligated to purchase electricity from qualified facilities (QFs) under a law called PURPA. Net Metering isn't a federal requirement, but PURPA sure as heck is.

Note that what makes a "qualified facility" is that the price of electricity purchased from one must be LOWER than the cost to produce the electricity by the utility.

Which means that they're only required to buy the electricity if not doing so would increase the cost of electricity to their customers.

So, no, net metering isn't required. They're not even required to pay you as much as their own wholesale rates, though they probably would....

from several criminal practices, including avoiding taxes

"Avoiding" taxes is NOT a crime. "Evading" taxes IS a crime.