While the lack of knowledge of science might seem to an inhibitor, in this case it was unknowingly a brilliant stroke of luck. By over engineering the house the builder assured its survival under all but the most extreme weather conditions.

Since, at that time, trying to rebuild a house was a long and tedious process (compared to today), the over engineering served to protect the investment. Spend a little extra now instead of a lot more later.

We can't have nice things (chip & pin) because American industry is too cheap to upgrade infrastructure.

No. We can't have nice things because some people think it's acceptable to steal other people's information or works. If people wouldn't steal there would be no need for chip and pin, or even pin.

Further, since we coddle such people when we catch them, this will be an ongoing issue. If you get rid of them you send a clear message that even if it doesn't deter someone, this will be the penalty you will pay if you do the same thing.

Hasn't the RIAA been filing suits against people for downloading music without paying for it for a decade or so?

You paid for this music when you bought the phone.

Keep trying.

You can only lower taxes if you lower your spending. I have yet to see any government entity, Federal or State, do so.

Further, if you have read The Federalist Papers you will see both how naive Madison, Hamilton and Day were on the tax issue, as well as their ideas on taxes in general. They square, more or less, with how things are done in that those who make more should pay more not as a form of punishment but only because they can.

However, this should be taken in context as in their day the difference between the rich and everyone else was just as wide as it is today but it was somewhat easier for a person to move up the financial ladder than it is today for numerous reasons.

As to taxing the rich, see above. It's not a punishment, regardless of what some on the left will say, but only the fact that they can afford to pay more without that extra money affecting their lifestyles. Compare someone making $50K/year who has a 2% increase in their federal tax rate to someone making $250K/year. That 2% impacts them significantly more than the second person even though the amount is more in the latter case.

If we're going to lower taxes we need to make across the board cuts. There are no sacred cows. Reduce the Social Security programs, cut out military projects, stop most food and fuel subsidies, remove tax loopholes and tax benefits to a bare minimum (mortgage deduction, depreciation, etc), and so on.

At this point there is no other way to lower taxes other than cutting what we spend and having, in this case Nevada, spend over $1 billion of its taxpayers money does not help the matter. That lost money has to come from somewhere and it will not be made up by those employed at the plant, those who build the extra road and development, the ones who feed these people and everything else. It won't happen. A large portion of that money will never be recovered in any form.

So the argument becomes, if we want to lower taxes we have to cut our spending or if not, the tax code needs to be rejiggered so more money can be found to keep paying for all the subsidies and the like we keep spending money on.

It happens regularly in this country. The taxpayers get the shaft so private industry doesn't have spend their money. Our football teams (U.S. football, not your football), when they need a new stadium, threaten to take their team to another city unless the taxpayers cough up their money to build the new stadium and related matters, while the team continues to charge exorbitant prices.

This country wastes hundreds of billions of dollars each year by making sure private industry doesn't have to suffer the pangs of going out and getting financing for its projects like the rest of us do when we want to buy a home or do major repairs.

Don't forget we used several trillion dollars to prop up our banks and financial firms when, through their own incompetence, our financial system went into meltdown. These folks then used the taxpayer money to give themselves bonuses for the great job they did AND have told us taxpayers to go pound sand any time it is mentioned they should thank us for protecting them.

For all our talk about free markets and capitalism, we are incrementally closer to fascism than we are to a representative democracy. Industry, as a whole, gets what it wants, even if it means the taxpayers have to bend over and take it.

digital TV broadcasts don't need the full 6MHz of broadcast spectrum that was used for analog TV.

Which is why the signal is worse than analog. Clipping, blocky shadows, dropped signals.

The only time digital has been better was the move to DVD from VHS/Beta and CDs from tape. 78s and 45s are still better than digital.

Or he's taking personal responsibility and accepting whatever awaits him because he knew what he did was wrong.

Unlike the guy who deliberately put his equipment in someone else's closet, attempted to hide that equipment, then whined when he was caught and tried to claim he was the victim before he killed himself.

"It's extremely difficult to 'improve' on the lethality of nature.

So the cross between ebola and the common cold, which was a terrible, terrible thing, wasn't an improvement on lethality?

What about the tons of dust and debris that fall to Earth every single day? What about the heat this planet radiates out, the loss of gases that occur naturally?

We do not have a closed system. Period. You can be ignorant and attempt to argue it all you want, but you will always be wrong.

Always.

Because people who smoke weed never rob anyone to get money or drive around stoned out of their gourd and wreck into people.

I always like it when the gays come out. That's always their first thought.

It's like Fred Phelps and his obsession with gays. I mean gees guy, give it a rest (technically he is because he's dead). We understood you were a closeted gay, but did you have to overcompensate so much?

She even admitted flat out on twitter to having sex for publicity

Apparently there are some desperate people in the gaming industry because speaking for myself, she is not attractive. Not hideous but not someone I'd consider, even when drunk.

But each to their own, right? More power to them if they felt the only way to get the goods on her games was to sleep with her.

Isn't Georgia one of those states where a majority of the folks rail against government intrusion and regulations into the private sector?

Must be nice to talk out of both sides of your mouth. Maybe they should get a gig as a sideshow freak.

What if someone doesn't have a smart phone but a solid, reliable "dumb" phone? What then? Are they going to be penalized because they can't be tracked?

Bite me. Insurance is enough of a scam now as it is. Having them track you in real time is pathetic. If they want to see how good a driver I am, see how many accidents I've had.

None? Well guess what, I must be pretty damn good not to have hit anyone in the decades I've been driving so stop raising my rates every year.

They provide this crappy support because they can get away with it.

You're lying. Everyone knows private industry is so much more efficient and responsive than the government so you're just making up this shit.

Private industry would NEVER treat their customers in the manner you described. They would bend over backwards, expending all needed time, effort and money to make sure your problem is resolved quickly and efficiently.

For those who don't grasp sarcasm, this was it. I work for a government agency and while we have all the people described in this thread, I can assure you, the private sector is just as incompetent and slow moving as anything the government does. The stories I could tell you about slow response, pawned off troubles and general incompetence. . .