Ahh, cool! I'd just checked the Coast Starlight. Thanks!

I've done Seattle -> San Francisco Bay Area on Amtrak, and it was (by comparison with plane travel) nice. I'd thought that that route might extend to Vancouver, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I'm sure some problems do happen because of cultural misunderstandings, but speaking as someone who grew up in the USA: the problems with the TSA are far more than cultural misunderstandings. I've had good experiences, to be sure, but some pretty horrible ones as well. I'll now drive half way across the country to avoid flying when it's possible, sadly that won't get me to many of the other places I need to get to.

Printing, even if it's rarely used, can have significant up-front costs. I'd still like to see an accounting, though.

Meh. Wrong link, to the WP article history rather than the article. Sorry about that.

No, the inclusion of "articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other animals" in the original act creating the FDA (the FFDCA, the C is "Cosmetics", btw) has been more or less uncontroversial for longer than you or I have likely been alive.

Moreover, I have really have no desire to return to the era of Mrs. Moffat's Shoo-Fly Powders for Drunkenness , or the bionic equivalent thereof.

I look forward to your justification for why Facebook feels it necessary to strip embedded copyright information from uploaded images.

(Arguably in violation of the DMCA.)

I'll wait.

--Joe

Funny, I had just been talking about this the day before yesterday.

In any case, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1202

(b) Removal or Alteration of Copyright Management Information.— No person shall, without the authority of the copyright owner or the law—
(1) intentionally remove or alter any copyright management information,
(2) distribute or import for distribution copyright management information knowing that the copyright management information has been removed or altered without authority of the copyright owner or the law, or
(3) distribute, import for distribution, or publicly perform works, copies of works, or phonorecords, knowing that copyright management information has been removed or altered without authority of the copyright owner or the law,

Actually, the DMCA does have an anti-copyright notice stripping provision.

I'm not 100% convinced that Facebook's Terms of Service legally allow them around this, but I'll be damned if I'll be the one footing the bill for that case.

High speed popcorn delivery.

When I look to assess whether it's a few fringe conservative religious whackjobs running the GOP, or a large part of the base, I look to the results of individual ballot measures that touch on the questions that matter most to those folks--generally social conservative touchstones such as same-sex marriage, gay/lesbian employment discrimination measures, abortion, and so forth.

Those measures, even when they fail, pull 40%+ support.

I really see no way of explaining this as being a function of a tiny minority of the GOP.

In this election, I was able to find six high-profile races that touched on "Christian value" issues. The percentage of voters taking the "pro-theocrat" position on these individual issues is indicated below.

• Florida abortion funds: 44.9%
• Florida religious school funding: 44.5%
• Maine same-sex marriage: 47.1%
• Maryland same-sex marriage: 47.9%
• Minnesota same-sex marriage ban: 47.6%
• Washington same-sex marriage: 48.3%

These numbers are more or less consistent with each other and history, and in every case above, the individual voting patterns are highly party-aligned.

What they are not consistent with is the idea that the theocrats are a tiny minority of the GOP.

"small fringe" is sadly not, to my mind, a plausible interpretation of the evidence

When you look at many votes on questions touched on by the theocrats, it's pretty clear that they enjoy substantial support from large segments and often majorities of the GOP electorate.

I'm very sorry that the somewhat more sensible Republican party of the past is no longer with us. But that's the case, and it's time for people who supported a more sensible GOP to either figure out a way of more effectively persuading people to your view (because the theocrats are winning that war, despite last night's results), or, alternatively, get themselves a more sensible party of their own.