You make the statement that the government should have invested x dollars in research instead of giving x dollars to a corporation, GM, in your query, to squander.

Two responses come to mind:

1) The government does fund research. Most of the dollars spent in the form of grants and such go to science. I know because my fiance teaches at a research university and her area of expertise, non-science, receives virtually nothing compared to the sciences. The budget for the entire department is less than $40,000 for the acquisition of books vs. millions for science.

2) The government gave billions of dollars to Chysler and GM as an investment in political capital rather than technological capital. Feel free to disagree with me, but I would ask you explain why the Chrysler deal gives billions of assets to the UAW while completely fucking over the smaller retirement funds such as the Indiana fund which just lost 61% of the value of those investments.

the health care system today has price floors (union contracted wages), price ceilings (usual and customary rate), the removal of the individual being able to negotiate a better price (hmo legislation from 1970s), and mandated electronic locks on everything (hippa). all i hear is it's broken and when are we gonna fix it? jesus h christ, congress has been 'fixing' it longer than i have been alive! when are you going to wake up?

Yeah, except the RIAA will just bill you for the 1,000 songs @ $750 a song * 8.25% resulting in a bill of $750,000 for the songs plus $61,875 in taxes.

'I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinski.' You can say you didn't until you're blue in the face but if we believe you did it.... Look at it this way, remember when you said we were guilty of illegal file sharing and we said we didn't do it? Maybe you see my point, now?

Terrorism is the vehicle that the United States government is utilizing to expand its totalitarian powers. This is just another example of a central government knowing where its citizens are each and every minute of every day. Are you behind on your Visa bill? Did you miss a car payment? Do you owe back child support or taxes? Do you write anti-government comments on websites? If so then this program is designed to catch you and put you where you belong. Catch illegal aliens my fucking ass.

The nineteenth century in Europe was dominated by three -isms: Liberalism, Nationalism, and Communism. The nineteenth century was also the least violent century in the history of Europe. This is not communism as defined by Marx, and the author of the article appears to identify communal behavior with Lenin and Stalin which also cannot be considered pure Marx.

When a centralized world body controls the internet with an iron fist - its content, its distribution and you are forced to contribute without payment then you might be able to call it communal, but until then it is the furthest thing from communal. Ideas have consequences. Don't think that your government doesn't see what happens on the net and eyes shutting it down. The most dangerous idea man has ever had is that he is free and beholden to none.

Yes, a working connection is more important than food, and on par with beer.

PC: Hi, I'm a PC.

MAC: And I'm a MAC. PC, what are you doing with that hammer?!

WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

PC: MAC, MAC, MAC. you obviously don't understand how a business works. Let me e-mail you a spreadsheet -

MAC: But you just broke.... Um, PC, what are going to do with that hacksaw?

PC: MAC, didn't you see the movie saw? Well, that's how I'm to improve the Windows experience.

Corporations do not pay taxes, but their customers do. Exxon Mobile doesn't pay gasoline taxes, you do. Sales taxes, payroll taxes, again that's you. Corporate taxes, yep, those costs are passed to you, the customer. When Obama says he is taxing those evil corporations that don't pay their fair share what he is really saying is you're not paying enough for the food you eat, the gas you put in your car, etc because ultimately those costs will be bore by you or the corporation will cease to exist or no longer do business where you live. Think I'm wrong? Check any balance sheet of any publicly traded company.

What about the parents? Don't they have the final responsibility to educate their children? Sure, they send them to school, but do they make sure that they are learning? Do they read the material presented and talk about it with their children and ask questions so that they know what they have learned? Of course not, they send them off each morning and the kids come home to an empty house, maybe a blowjob, or a PS3. Mod me down, but it's the damned truth. Children are failed to be educated because of their parents. Professional educators have their faults, sure, but put blame on where it belongs, on parents that don't give a shit about their kids.

'throw away your cell phone and email accounts, toss your uniforms and flags in the fire and behave as if it were the past. pass all your communications in person, and pretty soon the guys from the future won't be able to see you and ask "who the hell are we fighting!?"'

face it, you are not going to ever stop a determined enemy, you just aren't. consider that a truly free society does not need a government to monitor it's enemies and citizen's telephone calls or emails, because a truly free society cannot be monitored, killed or destroyed.

I love my X4 920/Biostar 790GX. It's cool and quiet, and encodes music and video at 1/4 price of i7.

I did not read his review. I did read the movie sucked. No, I have not watched it, and I probably will not. If he wrote that the movie, as unfinished, sucked, then I believe you have the reason he was fired - not because he reviewed an unreleased movie. Hell, unreleased movies are review all the time. It's called hype.

Show business, like politics, is a dirty game. It is not a coincidence that the local radio stations just happen to play NIN/JA combos two months before they come to town to play a show. These people have a failed business model and damn any one telling them that they make shit that no one wants to buy.

Fair and balanced my ass.

/d0n0vAn

What's that smell? What the hell is THAT smell? We'll, I'll tell you, it's Uhura.

I am sure I will be modded down for this reply, but here we go....

Your third sentence makes the statement that pretending [child abuse] does not exist is sad and ineffective, therefore unreasonable enforcment laws and a nanny is acceptable as long as it helps the children.

The BBC article did not link to the 'Children's Charities Coalition on Internet Safety' [sic], but I looked it up and read through the letters posted. From the 'Letter to Lord Carter':

'There is one issue which we see as being something of a hybrid, but among other things it certainly touches on the safety agenda. I refer to the misuse of file-sharing software.'

'Of course we have no interest in promoting or allowing copyright theft but we are just as concerned about the potential for a family to be plunged into a financial crisis when a rights-holder tries to collect their dues, the bill for which having arisen from the unknown/undiscovered activity of a child in the household. Some children will doubtless have fully understood the unlawful nature of their activity from the outset, and will simply have been skilful [sic] at disguising what they are doing from their parents.'

'Then there is the role of this type of software in providing access, as it frequently does, not only to copyright protected material, but also to a spread of other items found on participants' storage devices and hard drives. These other items may range from the plainly illegal e.g. child pornography, through to extreme violence or hard core pornography which falls short of being illegal but which is nonetheless highly age inappropriate, and much else between and besides.'

'In every other context, when we speak about online safety, it is commonly accepted that all participants and players in the digital space have a responsibility to do what they can to make the internet a safer place for everyone, but perhaps particularly for some of the most vulnerable elements in society such as children.'

SOURCE: http://chisuk.blogspot.com/

Reasonable enforcement laws is an oxymoron if I read one.

In the nineteenth century there was a battle to control political opinion through pamphlets. In the twentieth century, it was newspapers, television and radio. And in the the beginning of the twenty-first century there is a battle to control the internet and therefore your mind.

Do not be fooled into thinking that this is for the children.