But why is the threat dealt with differently than one done in person?

Because threats of violence are easier to consummate from three feet away than from 1000 miles away?

Seriously, can you actually see an imminent threat being meaningful when the threatener and threatenee are separated by a continent? Or even a State (well, maybe not one of those tiny States in New England, but a real State...)?

There's absolutely no reason copyright should not be infinite years

Other than that phrase "for limited times" in the Constitution, you mean?

A clever dictator asks Congress for things he does not want, so that he can deflect the blame to Congress when they fail to pass it

If he didn't want it, why did he renew it last time? He's got a veto for that sort of thing.

Note, by the by, that both this time and last time, the Dems in the Senate were pretty solidly in favor of renewal

The problem is that a few states have actually refused to recognize same-sex marriages from other states, and most purportedly "states rights" proponents in this debate supported them in that (I have no idea where Rand stands on it personally).

Irrelevant. Refusing to recognize valid marriages from another State is clearly unconstitutional, and grounds for the Supremes to bitchslap the State(s) in question. Article IV, Section 1 is pretty clear....

And how does that work once people that are married in one state travel to a different state, or conduct any sort of activity that is affected by their marital status across state lines?

Pretty much the same as things worked back in the day when only Nevada allowed for quick & easy divorces. Note that those divorces were perfectly valid in all States, since the Full Faith and Credence Clause requires all States to honor that sort of thing when done by other States (note that you don't have to remarry when you move from State to State, even though the marriage is done under State law).

In other words, if the Feds stay out of the marriage business, if you want to get married to someone of your own sex, then just go to a State that allows that sort of thing, get married, then head home...

And I'm sure the railroad barons felt the same way.

I'm sure they did.

And the evidence is that they were right, by the by. Note that sans railroads, the USA would probably be five or six nations now. Running a nation that requires literally months to cross isn't practical....

There's also no ability to bail out like they did with Apollo 13. Once they are on their way there, there is no possibility of turning around. Even when you get there, you have to wait about 6 months for the planets to get into the right alignment for the trip home.

Hmm, Apollo 13 "bailed out" by taking advantage of its Earth Return Trajectory (it was launched on a path that would come back here unless there was a burn to put it into Lunar orbit).

Likewise, it's possible to do an Earth Return Trajectory for Mars. It's a two year orbit that comes back here at a time when Earth is at the same point in its orbit. More fuel intensive, but quicker (it'll take about six months to get near Mars).

Most ebooks don't come with DRM attached.

I find myself curious as to which world you live in...

Amazon's Kindle format comes with DRM (just got a note from B&N telling me that they're no longer allowed to do unencrypted Kindle format for their eBooks (though they provided a helpful guide to removing the DRM for backup purposes).

Default for most Nook books is encrypted ePub, though there are a few publishers that don't require encrypted ePub.

So, where are the "most books" coming from that are not DRM'd?

They want a bike that can go zero to sixty in two seconds. Yet the human eyeball flattens enough under that kind of acceleration that vision is severely limited.

Interesting theory you have there, Butch...

0-60mph in two seconds is 1.37g. Which is comparable to the acceleration you'd experience landing after jumping to the ground from a height of three feet or so....

It doesn't have to be loaded with graft & corruption to be a waste of time.

TFA talks about a 2.5KW system. Which is about 10 panels. So this whole program is going to provide free solar to 150-200 homes in a State with 38.8 million people.

Wow, a program to provide free solar to 0.0025% of CA's population!! Really generous program you've got there, guys....

How has the US/Russia/etc negotiated in good faith on effective measures

Note that they're required to negotiate in good faith on "effective measures" - when they figure out some "effective measures", then you can complain about them not negotiating "in good faith".

And just curious, what "effective measures" can you think of? Especially in light of the fact that North Korea is NOT a signatory to the NPT....

It seems that the arsenals are growing, or if shrinking, they are becoming more powerful overall as they are replaced with more modern weapons.

As to that, no, they're not actually building more powerful nukes. The delivery mechanisms are getting more accurate, so smaller nukes are as effective as big nukes were back in the day. Note that there are no multi-megaton nukes left - they've been replaced with fractional-megaton weapons with a CEP small enough that it makes no difference.

Note, by the by, that CEP is a function of the rocket (or bomber), not the nuke. And improved versions of rockets/bombers aren't limited by the NPT in any case.

How is making someone else do the collection and storage (with far less security than their own current collection) really any real change?

It saves the government some money if the data is stored on someone else's hardware?

Slavery, monarchy, and arranged marriages were much older institutions that ended.

Or not, since they all still exist in the world today.

I thought I heard they started generating DL numbers for everyone though, so what's with your assertion?

Purely anecdotal evidence. I've lived in (I think) eight States in my life. Exactly one of them didn't use SSN as DL number by default. Admittedly that belief is time-biased - I've only lived in one State this past decade, so if the several States have changed this century, it's possible that I would have just missed it....

That's all the ID the IRS requires to use their "secure" site???

Jaysus, you can get most of that (SSN & DoB) by looking at someone's Driver License in most States.

And guessing Married Filing Jointly will work more often than not, I expect....