What you should be asking is who believes this is a pay once? Now it doesn't work like that. You'll be asked to pay again even if they have to disguise it as something new

Watch.

I watched the live coverage, I was watching and reading a number of different sources for information, and I've never been so disappointed in space travel coverage in my life. The live coverage was one animation after the other the same old, whatever. The commentators were good at commenting, but they had very little offer. Experts came on to talk about how great it was. Technical details even at a superficially technical level, nope. We used to get a lot better than this in the early Apollo and the Gemini launches. There. You'd get some talk about some of the details. You'd hear a lot more than oh. This is so very hard. I was totally and completely underwhelmed by NASA's coverage and by the official so-called outlets. Boring

You missed. My theology is in no way a prosperity theology. I believe in Christ crucified. You just hate Conservativism, the philosophy of limited government, individual liberty, and constitutional law, among other distinctives. Your other mistakes aren't important in this discussion, if at all.

BTW, none are so selfish as those who expect others also to pay for their largesse.

Actually, I recognize government, to in the US, as recently becoming downstream of culture. This is a fundamental problem, but mostly due to the culture making a concerted effort (for at least 70 years) to reshape government. You're all pretty observant. You see it also.

Always insightful.

"if that culture is capable of delivering economic growth and security for the public"

And they expose their true selves. Culture should not, I propose, be charged with 'delivering economic growth and security'.

Make that 'economic opportunity', and I'm in.

Security being economic security, in this context, also should not be the role of culture, which is more often named the State. And the State delivers nothing it does not first take from the People.

Give the People the library to pursue their own self interests. Watch as economic growth ensues. You want economic security? Get the State out of the way.

Impressive.

Live theater where I live is quite good. It's just not a lot of variety. the shows stay a long time, they have decided to chase each other's repertoire, and my most favorite troupe has taken to repeating work done 5-7 years ago. Good shows. I want a little more variety.

And of course there are things to see on the screen that cannot be replicated on the stage. Just different and interesting.

"With the RAM pricing, a MacBook Pro is actually priced considerably less than a comparably specced ThinkPad"

Well, as of yesterday, maybe. Is Apple immune to supplier pricing?

Until recently, distilling your own spirits was prohibited. A legacy of that era so well named.

As recently decided for now.

And they you go and write 'The world isn't fair and it's not because of "the state"'. Oh my. We do, however, owe a duty to each other and ourselves to be honest about that, to challenge and defeat corruption and abuse, and care for one another. Not defer that duty of care to some entity we pay to make it go away.

But government satisfies the ultimate condition of Man's heart - to rule. Which infects every activity we endeavor to practice.

"42 because it's what you get when you multiply six by nine"

https://emetonline.org/resourc...

https://www.icanw.org/what_you...

https://armscontrolcenter.org/...

"No user serviceable parts inside"

Or, in simple English, repair requires skill, training, knowledge, some combination of the three, beyond that a regular and common user would possess.

It also works, in the real world, to identify some product that can not, in fact, be repaired at the component level, either due to physical reality (epoxy potted components come to mind) or the manufacturer's inability to source the required components (third-part complex parts, I could offer examples which should be obvious to anyone able to make an argument from knowledge).

Sometimes this is more a statement of reality than an attempt at obfuscation. 'cause some stuff cannot be 'fixed', and the average user would not even understand why.

Disclaimer - I fully support Right to Repair. I also acknowledge the reality that some stuff is really difficult. And in the example from TFA, We are generally talking about equipment that is not so much 'repaired' as either replaced at the subassembly level, or more likely, in the example, problem-solved in software. You want the right to repair your router's software? Or just access to it after the explicit agreement or arbitrary agreement with the manufacturer says no? As in, you paid for support during the warranty period, but after that expired, the manufacturer soon abandoned software support...? Read the EULA. Ask the State to force them to do whatever the State decided to do. Watch innovation die.

"So, let the companies retain their monopoly over repair and then regulate that repair business"

Your solution is the highest abuse of rent-seeking for the ostensible purpose of 'making things right'.

And this is how government destroys our lives, beyond even the efforts of 'those evil corporations' that are assumed to exit merely to exploit us.

Your proposal is the opposite of liberty. It substitutes the State for the Corporation. And diminishes us further with no benefit, because the State will act in its own interest. The solution is less of the State, more of the individual. Right to Repair does this better than regulating repair.