Imagine someone that doesn't live within walking distance of their fantasy US address...

You realize not all foreigners live so close to a U.S. border, right?

There's a vast difference between supporting local artists and forcing consumption of local artists on citizens.

What is the Canadian mandate, 15-20% of content must be created by Canadians? Imagine a movie theater that required every 5th ticket sold has to be for a movie from Sony Studios - while it's great for Sony Pictures (they are guaranteed 20% of box office revenue) it doesn't force Sony to compete to make better movies, where's the incentive?

Any chance the higher rates in Canada are for Canadian taxes and Canadian music license costs, not simply wonton greed on the part of XM Radio?

Did he?

He a U.S. citizen with a U.S. subscription paid from his US bank account living on US soil watching US Netflix content on a US (Gov't provided) ISP... How is he a pirate?

No, they shouldn't.

If a customer pays for access to the U.S. movie library, they shouldn't be forced to use the Norwegian Netflix library when they go on a skiing vacation to Lillihammer.

You should get access to whatever you pay for, not whatever is licensed for the country they happen to be visiting. What if there is no Netflix license agreement in the country one visits? Does that mean they have zero access to the cloud-based streaming service they are paying for?

Congress can't 'pass a law' without Obama signing it - when did Obama sign the bill (making it law) that prevents him from transferring gizmo detainees? I suspect they put a line in a budget CR that says no money can be spent transferring gitmo prisoners.

Teachers have above average pay? And esteem? Have you seen some of the education debates these days?

Yes, the vast majority of public school teachers earn above-average pay. In NJ, the school district I just moved out of paid starting, first-year (no experience) teachers with a BA over $50K/year with full benefits. The average HOUSEHOLD income in New Jersey is around $60K/year. Teachers cry poverty because in many communities some students parents make more than the teachers do, and that makes them feel unappreciated.

Yes, teachers are held in a position of esteem in most communities - it is very common for parents to teach their children to not only respect, but try and emulate their teacher (every community in America is not an inner-city war zone). There's an interesting phenomenon - everyone I ask says 'I respect teachers and think they should be paid much more than they are (they typically don't know what their child's teacher is paid, they 'just know' they are under-paid - because the teacher's union says they are), but NO ONE ELSE respects teachers. Watch how parents act at parent-teacher night, they (typically) respect teachers.

The education debates are one-sided money-grabs with teachers crying poverty to taxpayers that typically earn much less than them.

What is the relevant 'slant' here?

The U.S. Navy is less than half the size of China's and a bit smaller than the Russian navy - there are at least a dozen countries with navies at least half as big as the U.S. Navy.

Source: http://www.globalfirepower.com...

Yes you asked a question, then you answered it. As soon as you answered your own question you went from being curious to simply asking a rhetorical question just so you could answer it.

I took exception to your answer, not your question. Your assumption that 'huge sections' could be reused and that the navy has the spare manpower to break the ship into 'huge sections' for reuse were simply ignorant.

No, we really don't 'need' MSNBC, their news programs suck, their opinion shows 'strive' to emulate The Daily Show, and they turn off the news department on weekends to entertain prison-fetishists...

They currently enjoy both revenue streams, why would they agree to cut off one revenue stream for the other?

What you are describing would only be possible if cable companies embraced the 'al a carte' model allowing customers to pick and choose individual channels for their service.

Cable TV was never sold as "commercial-free" - cable TV traces it's roots back to CATV - "Central Antenna TeleVision" - intended to provide better reception of over-the-air broadcast TV stations. Then, later, satellites provided cable companies with the ability to carry commercial free cable channels (HBO) along with rebroadcasting local broadcast TV which always has contained commercials. Then along came cable channels that straddled both markets emerged - they are cable only, but include commercials.

How was a cable company going to carry your local network stations and NOT carry the commercials?

You mean like Current TV?

Content creation is expensive, carrying other's content is just a pass-thru expense.