Comment: Re:Yes, it will raise prices (Score 1) 345
All they are doing is following the Walmart business model in a larger scale.
Comment: Re:Firing in US (Score 1) 582
Because the USA is run by Big Business, who can give unlimited money to candidates for office. You can be fired here for no stated reason at all.
Sorry, but TSA is a Government Agency. Now is that big business? Depends on your view. It could be since they treat the constituency like an ATM.
Comment: Re:A Few Notes on Your Suggestion (Score 2) 736
"Oil is a fungible commodity, sold on the global market to the highest bidder, as McAuliff points out."
It has nothing to do with some grand conspiracy. It's a simple matter of supply and demand. America is competing on the world market for cheap energy. The locality of drilling only determines who gets first sale profits and the quality of the crude. Other than that, the highest bidder gets the oil. Simple as that.
Now personally, I think we should maintain our strategic reserve for times of natural disasters and regional conflict (war). The idea of tapping into it to spook the speculators is flat out wrong. It's also not working anymore. The hedge fund managers are starting to become immune to this political tactic.
Agreed. And I think there is another point that is missed on the consumer. If you owned an oil company or you have stocks in said petro company where is your incentive to lower prices? There isn't any. You are making cash hand over fist. I mean, no one is bitching about he cost of their IPad when Apple is sitting on a 100 billion worth of cash. But then again, some folks think Apple is "green."
Comment: Re:USA...we miss you! (Score 1) 279
In american America, people monitor the government.
In soviet America, the government monitors the people.
Just an observation and being an election year, is that when this type of stuff went on before it was always Bush's "plan", yet not one word against Obama to do anything about it. Not surprising, but interesting.
Comment: Conflicting statements (Score 1) 395
"thus within reach of challenging the fossil fuel hegemony" vs "leave it in a sunny area"
I can run my lights all night long, which ironically enough is when I need them.
And don't call it "Green" when there are some nice large battery stores that need to be dealt with in a few years.
Comment: Re:Interesting question .... (Score 2) 458
And don't forget the reason that divorce costs so much....because it's totally worth it.
Comment: Re:Not at all shocking. (Score 1) 173
How many of you remember the old days when DARPA made a CAD package with tax dollars and felt the citizens should have full access to that source code?
People wanted for the longest time for the Govt to operate as a business to find efficiencies and cost savings. Well, operating as a business means that income needs to be generated by investments. So that is what they are doing, using their income (tax) to generate more income (patent holdings).
Comment: Re:not to mention getting run over by SUVs (Score 1) 222
Here's an interesting factoid, a car as big as an SUV is not the same as a delivery truck, and ordinances could be written to allow one while prohibiting the other.
So what size SUV are you talking about? Midsize or full size? What about a pick-up truck or van (commercial, personal, minivan)? It's a slippery slope with that type of legislation.
Comment: Re:not to mention getting run over by SUVs (Score 1) 222
"How about cars as big as SUVs shouldn't be considered for city use?"
Should be interesting to get goods into a city when trucks can't get downtown.
Comment: Re:Religious Prosecution of File Sharers (Score 4, Insightful) 358
"Fun fact: In Finland, the only person you should confess a murder to is a priest. Even the court can't force a priest to break the secrecy."
Better fact: The best kept secret is the one that no one else knows about.