I work government and I've never had an option of not contributing into SS. I believe I paid a lower percentage when I was in the military, but I still paid.

I agree TSA is worthless. However even the companies have been known to save a million even if it meant a billion in losses. As long as those in charge have already collected their bonuses.

I wish I had mod points to bump you up. The constitution has a few flaws, but it works in general, if we could just get actual enforcement of it. As you mentioned, this is due to the current parties, lobbyists, CEOs, and most dangerous, bankers in charge.

Atlas V has less than 20 flights...You're including the Atlas 2 and Atlas 3 in your count. Unfortunately they were different vehicles. Nonetheless, I agree that the Atlas V is a better choice than the Ares (at least the Ares I) for a number of reasons.

Hell even a lot of people in the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) fly only when necessary, and many of them are able to fly for free (on a space available basis). I am considering a 1000 mile trip next summer, and I will either drive or take the train. There will be no flying, not when 2 children will be involved. And the reason is purely the hassle involved. Driving will be an 18 hour or so ordeal; train 25 hours, but no ordeal. And those options are still better than flying.

I would say that if the EULA met your first two requirements that the third (Right of First Sale doctrine) could definitely be waived. By being clear that you were licensing the software for the specified use and that you could not resell the software, its value to you could be specified. If the asking price is too high, don't buy it. A similar process goes on every year at colleges, where students make a decision on whether to buy textbooks, knowing (usually) that when the course is done, they'll be able to sell the book for roughly 10 (30 if they are lucky) cents on the dollar. Occasionally, they run into a class where the book is coming up for a reprinting with new material and the bookstores won't buy it back. The First Sale doctrine is still in play, but the market is missing. The student gets to make a decision on the value of the book and the price. A company that licenses its software should be rightfully offering discounts--Autodesk doesn't.

And if you believe that cursive writing is writing you are sadly mistaken and probably responsible for some of the crap I have to read at work. Writing is the means of communicating ideas, so people can use those reading skills. The means of getting it on paper, or screen, is not nearly as important as getting the idea together in a coherent form. Not everyone is going to have a computer already at their fingertips, agreed. But regular block writing is quite effective. And for most people in this day and age, the typing course would be more useful. Typing does not directly increase literacy, but neither does the ability to use cursive script.

I just know I don't want to be in charge of the Fully User Capable Key Encryption Device program.

And sounds a lot like what was being accomplished by Bush. Unpatriotic was the charge leveled repeatedly. The insane spending was initiated by Bush. The only howls are because a few different groups are getting the payouts and bribes than the Republicans would have given. Many of the payouts are the same under either party. The key to recognize is that the corporations don't care which party is in charge as long as they have been thoroughly bought. In fact, by having 2 and only two parties, the parties can fight over 'issues' and make voting seem important, when the (big) corporations still win. And having small companies die is great for the big corporations because they get them for a song. And it's not stockholders who make out like bandits, it's the actual bandits, CEO's, CFO's and cronies, who have the SEC in their back pocket.

You mean Columbus is going back to America (West Indies)? He did that already. How is that going to inspire anybody?

Well I have checked the public, particularly that reported by the media and I have the perfect solution: Send Paris Hilton or Britney Spears with a camera focused on them 24/7 (probably between their legs) and have the other astronauts have sex with them regularly. This way the government makes money back on selling the videos. It'll be the first pay per view coverage of the astronauts. Plus this gives NASA another way of getting vital technology to the masses: either VD cures or a means of prevention transmission of VD. Now since it will likely take NASA years before such a plan could go into effect, Paris and Brit will be too old, but the next talentless 'celebrity' will be readily available.

Public goes cold on photo ops rather quickly building a plan based on the photo ops is likely doomed to fail. I don't even think it's all that necessary to build the public support as long as the goals are clear and supportable. I am not so sure about that for the current NASA plan

The LES at that time in flight should work as designed and get it away from the propellant. The time is outside of the range specified in the Air Force briefing. Plus there's much less propellant so the danger should be less even if the results are different than estimated.

Actually the range safety charges do NOT go down the entire length of the Shuttle SRB. They are not present on the aft segment, which might cause a definitely unsafe fragment, at least early in flight, which of course is about the only time people might be in danger. NASA is supposedly going to fix that mistake with the Ares.

Exactly. Similar for the early airplanes. Lot of folks died, but there were plenty still willing to fly. There's a similar load of astronauts willing to fly even with problems. They should still try to fix problems, but the goal shouldn't necessarily be the most reliable rocket that can be built. There's an optimization level there in the faster, better, cheaper triangle. You overload on better and cheaper and faster go right out the window. There's also something to be said about test flights. Especially the flight version, not a downgraded version like the Ares I-X.

Heck it's worse than that. A coworker was t-boned by a guy running a red light and nearly died. Lifetime of medical problems. Because she didn't die, he was charged only with traffic offense(s). And because of that accident, I am slower to move out at that green light (and others) because of fear of other stupid/aggressive/ignorant/clueless drivers.

The last accident I was in I was on the cell phone. But I was stopping at the red light as I was supposed to, the guy behind me did not and rear ended me. The problem with these studies is that they study the effects of using a cell phone, which should have the effect of reducing a driver's skill in almost every case. The problem is that the top 50% of drivers using a cell phone may still be better than the bottom 25% without. If true, the better law would be to limit who has a driver's license, more than is currently done. I don't have any data to support that of course, but it should also be studied before concluding that cell phone laws will fix anything.