As opposed to gold, which has never seen the price move.

So then sex with Monica Lewinsky has been decided to be a good thing because Clinton was elected?

Not every action by an elected government is the will of the people or the "right thing". And given that people are arguing here that it isn't even protectionism, makes me think that it isn't as settled as you assert.

They should all be named Colbert 1 through Colbert 305.

Ben 10 is one of my kids favorites. It's "magic". An incomprehensible mechanical device re-builds a creature, adding or subtracting mass from nothing. But it's "science" because the device says it works from DNA, even from creatures with no DNA (some of the crystal and liquid creatures have no cells, so it seems implausible they'd have DNA).

Sci-Fi can only be appreciated in retrospect. Jules Verne "invented" TV, CCTV, nuclear subs, SCUBA, and lots of other things by creating the ideas for them. Before it was even "plausible". Some other writers/stories did the same. Geostationary orbit was "invented" but a sci-fi writer as well. You can even call it a Clarke orbit, if you like.

Seems many of the sci-fi writers for an era were physicists that didn't have the ability to test their theories, so they documented them in fiction. Not like the sci-fi writers for Star Wars novels that are firmly in fantasy. It doesn't help when Star Trek skirts the line, with "magic" transporters and replicators and the ability to generate any type of particle in any type of polarization.

That and many of the apocolypse themes are magic or sci-fi based on your opinion. Truck Stop/Maxmum Overdrive. Was it Sci-fi, as the "cause" was extra-terrestrial? Or was it fantasy because they were magic?

Are Resident Evil zombies sci-fi because they give it a scientific excuse, but Night of the Living Dead (or Walking Dead) wasn't because there wasn't much in how they became zombies? I am Legend gave them a scientific cause.

There's no way to separate them. That's why so many mix them together. The plots and story wouldn't change if the work was converted from one to the other. "The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" is considered by most (almost all?) to be Sci-fi. With a few minor changes, and the story would be the same, but it would be Fantasy/magic

How do you catch up to someone to try to stop them without "chasing" them?

It's not a "convenient mechamism" it's reality. You should try visiting sometime.

Note, I didn't support/attack protectionism. But the idea that it's a [good, bad] thing should be agreed first, and separately considered whether the implementation achieves that goal.

So often I see people say things like, "protectionism is bad, but price controls to help smaller shops compete with larger ones is good." The cognitive dissonance is my main complaint.

Fantasy is where the power is from some mystics who meditate on it and are part of some hokey religion. SF is where the power is Midichlorians or nanites or DNA. The settings and stories are the same.

And you've not named any. Aside from 100% CCTV coverage, there's no practical way to stop someone without chasing them.

And you are repeating yourself, and never commenting on anything I say that proves you wrong. Care to try? No, you are a lying piece of shit asshole.

The cop sees a speeder or stolen car go past. He pulls out and puts on his lights to stop the car. The driver takes off at 12,322 mph in a 30 mph zone. The cop, unable to pursue, pulls over and radios it in. The car, traveling faster than a bullet, rams a mall, killing 10,000. In this scenario, you'd blame the police for "chasing". The cop didn't "chase", but "tried to stop". What could the police do to perform their "regular" duties without ever trying to pull over anyone for any reason? After all, any attempt to stop someone by coming up from behind (the most common method, by far), could be considered a "chase".

Borders and Barnes and Noble were obliterated by Amazon. But any book stores that survived Borders/B&N were not affected by Amazon at all. Amazon was late to the "cheap and easy" party, they just did it better than the big chains did, and hurt them most. Any small store that had a near by big store, was better off after Amazon, and the big store closed down again.

"free" means optional and not explicitly/separately paid for by the end user.

Shipping is free. Or now one cent.

Protectionism is protectionism, whether protecting "small" from "big" or "local" from "foreign" or "wasteful/bad" from "effective". I know a number of small shops. They haven't been killed by Amazon. The smaller book stores have gotten into service and knowledge. Selection and price is for Amazon. Casual discussion of authors while exploring, and running into other people in the shops is left for the locals.

But then, I haven't been book shopping in France.

So, jackass. Tell me what you want the police to do when they see a stolen car drive past? Check its insurance status, or try to pull the guy over?

Again, your statements are in line with executing the criminal when they start endangering others, not "chasing" them.

If the police try to pull someone over, there's a non-zero chance they'll run, and keep running long after the police stop giving chase. So the *only* way to protect the innocents is to kill the driver if he fails to stop. So, do you want to protect the innocents? Then why do you allow the runners to run until they kill, even if they are not being chased?

So your argument is that police should shoot to kill if someone fails to yield. That's the best solution to these. The case here was someone who was not being pursued was still afraid of being caught, so they endangered others, until they crashed. "safer" is to shoot the car/driver until it stops. Is that really what you are advocating? Because it's either that, or abolishing all traffic stops.

Everyone I've seen use one uses it to remotely answer the phone, while they try to find where they last laid the phone. It's probably a better match for the tablet-sized phones people don't keep on them.