What stops them from getting a savings account? If there's a reason, I'm curious to know. They need to cash checks, not write them.

Wow. That's a very skewed view of history. The first scientists were Christian? There are quite a few Greeks and Romans, among others, who would dispute that if they were alive.

What? Hell is a largely Christian idea. Many other religions, including ones that predate it, don't have one. For example, Judaism.

I see we have someone from Boston.

The value of gold has not remained fixed either. It is subject to supply and demand like any other commodity. The cost to extract it is only the supply side of that equation. The demand side can fluctuate wildly. The price of gold has gone both up and down when measured in fiat currencies.

I can't speak for Chicago, but Baltimore used to have traffic cops out during rush hour. They were far more efficient than the lights, which were ignored while they were there. They stopped a few months ago, budget reasons probably, and traffic downtown has gotten a lot worse.

I took a sleeper from Lausanne to Rome last year, though I think it was run by the Italians. The car was a bit old, but very comfortable with a nice helpful steward and not losing a day traveling was worth a ton since I only have so many days in my vacation.

TGV from Paris to Lausanne was pretty cool too. I liked how you could hear the warp drive start up when you got to the city limits.

The problem is in the first statement. You don't understand.

This is some RTS game on a limited map. In an active engagement, US troops are more than a match for insurgents. But when the enemy can hide anywhere and more anywhere, you must defend everywhere. You need a force that can counter them anywhere they might appear. Hence, you need a much bigger force.

Looking for something like this?

Logitech Harmony 1100

I've never actually used that one, but I have one of the base models and like it a lot, even if the programming software is intolerably slow. Only have to use it once anyway.

My pairs of what?

Personally I liked the Lost Levels a lot. But only in the setting of All Stars where you got a couple extra lives and could save. That made for a good challenge and balance. If I had the original 3 lives and start over version, it probably would have gotten smashed to bits.