Every time some authoritarian parent is questioned about their actions, the first thing out of their mouths is "well, do you have kids?"

you can rest assured that they've never had any children or taken care of them for any length of time

Or they assuredly have, which is why they can tell that the three year old isn't necessarily the one being childish, stubborn, selfish or petty.

A Jeep Grand Cherokee with the diesel option will get around 30mpg on the highway and seat up to 7.

Unfortunately, a third row seat is not an option on the Cherokee, so the max seating is five. Unfortunate because the engine provides good towing capacity in addition to mileage, so it would be nice if Chrysler made it an option for the Durango, which does have a third row.

I kind of laugh when I hear people say they "need" a minivan. Amazing how those of us who predate minivans somehow managed to survive. They're a great tool but hardly a necessity. The car my family had when I was growing up was a sports coupe. We took all the family trips and got all our gear in it too.

Do you do said laughter right after highlighting the different capabilities of trucks and SUV's, as you just did above? You weren't hauling 7 people plus gear in that sports coupe, at least not safely.

It always seems like you're on the side of the government, whether it's the NSA or what have you.

Often, yes. You see, I actually understand the design of the US government. It's built to continually revise and improve, and it's been doing so for over 200 years.

Sounds like a statist. But having secret laws, secret courts, and vast portions of the government operate outside the consent of the governed isn't an improvement, it's anti-ethical to a democracy.

How would your neighbors feel about it, knowing that you could be seen kidnapping their children, and the police could do nothing because they wouldn't know what room they're being held in? Sure, the examples are hypothetical

Example isn't Scottish. Let's fix it: a nosy neighbor reports you to the police for luring the underaged to your house, and so the cops get a warrant and search it. You produce the receipt for your recently purchased Girl Scout cookies, footage from the CCTV camera installed at your front door, and the girl's mother verifies your story: Sally was there to give you your Thin Mints and never set foot inside your house.

But they had a warrant! So they remove all your photo albums and find the pictures of you sitting on a couch made out of bags filled with marijuana, and bring you up on drug charges. Case is dismissed after you prove the photos were taken in Amsterdam three years ago, but by then your house and possessions were sold under asset forfeiture laws.

The White House should respond by providing links to state and federal representatives if they want the law changed.

And I would respond that state and federal representatives aren't leaders of the Democratic Party - Obama is. The president is also free to submit any legislation he wants to Congress, and then use the bully pulpit - only held by the sitting president - to urge it's passing.

Or if he wants to play hardball, threaten Congress that he'll start vetoing legislation until he gives in or they do. It's one of the ways Bush pushed telecom immunity through Congress when said immunity was deeply unpopular with the public.

That is a very simplistic view of a very complex subject.

Just because you want to dismiss it out of hand doesn't mean it's inaccurate.

That would mean that anything that is produced out of state would be federally regulated and that is completely untrue.

The trading of said goods can be regulated by the feds, that's the entire purpose of the Commerce Clause. To prevent states from screwing around blocking trade across state lines for petty protectionist reasons....like states blocking direct sales of cars to consumers.

For example California has certain emission standards and they are applied to all vehicles sold in California.

Standards set by California, not the feds. And no, that's not a petty protectionist reason, but a technical one. Still, the feds could step in and tell California that they'll take their smog and like it - but they've chosen not to.

Seeings as where just about any politician that mentions the free market gets dismissed by the mass media and folks like you as fringe and dangerous? I don't know, where do you expect them to be.

This isn't hard...the average elected Republican no more gives a shit about having a "free market" than he cares about banning abortion - it's the same hot air for the base. You can see this any time the Free Market Fairy starts to pose a danger to corporate profits, as Republicans rush to pass laws to support the monied interests that own the party.

And no, I don't expect your average Democratic governor to be better on this issue than Chris Christie, who moved to protect the fiefdoms of the dealers. They are bought as well, but at least they don't spend the rest of their time beating their chests about how much they love the Free Market Fairy.

Minis and the iTrash aren't a substitute for a rack mounted server with redundant power supplies. Apple, it would be couch money for you to continue this product as well as a 17" laptop line, even if they aren't big sellers.

This is a non-story, and not the first time a woman has wielded Mjolnir.

Talk about falling out of the boat but managing to miss the water...other people picking up the hammer is a non sequitur. It's like saying the new and improved Patty Parker is no big thang because other people have used web shooters and other women have had spider costumes.

tl;dr WHOOSH

Butthurt denialist is butthurt.

Things like requiring plugging in an iphone to a PC to turn off the find my iphone feature with iOS 7 as an example

Not so.

Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Find My iPhone

Only the Apple account password is needed, not a computer.

You don't think it would cost a pretty penny to replace our power infrastructure?

You don't think power structures need replacing, even if you stuck with coal power entirely?

See, that's where the AGW crowd deliberately misunderstands the Anti-AGW crowd.

Mirror, mirror, on the wall....

No one argues that solar power isn't cleaner than hydrocarbon - but it's unreliable and costs 3 times as much.

It's both reliable and cost competitive, sorry. And that's even without discounting the massive subsidies given the fossil fuel industry. Or did you think economic domination of the gas stations of the world was free?

You'll just have someone come by and point out that comparing science to religion is total BS. But like deniers, you can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into.

It's because he wasted his public trust by not practicing what he preached

It's because you want to be WATB's and bitch about Gore, since Snopes debunked this wingnut crap five freaking years ago.

Get a new hobby, guys.

Every major country has big spy operations. The NSA is neither unique nor the first of its kind

No country on earth comes close to the reach, depth, or pervasiveness of the spying from the NSA. If the spy budget is like the Pentagon budget, the U.S. spends more than the rest of the world combined. How many spy satellites does Argentina have pointed at D.C.? How much of the world's fiber optic network goes through Iceland, as opposed to the United States? This is as nonsensical as saying the USAF and US Navy are matched by prop fighter planes in Bumfuckistan because they both have guns.

The NSA is entirely unique in spying on the electronic communications of every person on the planet.