It's affected me about as much as the sequester did. Meaning, not at all. And I work for a heavily federally regulated and subsidized industry. My best friends wife works for the the VA and she was told that she was "Critical" and would have to work without pay until the budget was passed. She suggested she felt the flu coming on and suddenly she was getting a paycheck again.

This is all for show. The government quite literally prints money. They don't need a budget, they don't need dept. All of the money they bailed out the banks with was quite literally created out of thin air. We're once again being distracted from the real news. Enjoy the show.

Reducing the size of government isn't "turning back the clock". It isn't the 19th Century, and I didn't say anything about reversing laws. My comment was on the size of government, period.

Objective data show a strong correlation between the size of the Federal government and amount of regulation, with an increasingly weakened economy.

Mainly what it means to me is an excellent illustration of how Federal government has gotten WAY too big.

Generally speaking, considering the way our Union was designed, except for foreign trade and defense the Federal government should be able to pretty much shut down for a year, and I would barely even notice.

The fact that it's NOT that way is the whole problem.

Incidentally that first sentence describes a policy of artificial scarcity. Women are about 52% of the population. There is no scarcity.

That double standard will continue to exist so long as (too many) women continue to use sex appeal as a weapon of manipulation and a means of getting what they want.

If the significance of a woman's body and a woman's sexuality were to decline and become equal with mens', both effects would happen. It would be less useful as a tool of manipulation by unscrupulous women (the ones a wise man avoids) AND people would stop making a big deal out of every time a woman's body is exposed.

It's hilarious that when you say men should have honor and recognize womens' rights and treat women with respect, that makes you a "Troll" around here. Heh.

It's a win for people who view strife and chaos as a means to achieve power. Historically, a peaceful prosperous nation with no crises and no serious threats has never been a means of expanding political power. "All lose" in the general sense, because the few who do gain are so tiny in number that they are less than a rounding error compared to those who lose, so I don't think your statement is generally false.

You probably noticed my post contained no such recommendation. Personally, I really don't want to rely on the government to protect me from things that I can protect myself from merely by using good judgment and not taking stupid and unnecessary risks. If I do take a stupid and unnecessary risk and it results in regret and humiliation, I don't view that as a law enforcement problem.

Then there's the whole topic of how one actually gets to be a major political candidate and why no one who wants to strongly reduce the size and power of government is likely to ever get the financial backing it takes to win an election.

Actually I'm more of a small-'l' libertarian. Force, threat of force, and fraud are the major things a government should protect you from.

What the law should say and what constitutes a good, rational decision are two separate issues.

It's not slander if it's factually correct.

I think the feds should take advantage of those low prices. At least then, when they default, we can all end up with free T-shirts and a pair of shoes.

and where did the natural gas come from? Dead plants... covered over my erosion caused by weather patterns... all water and sun my friend.

I wasn't denigrating steam. I've a small DIY steam engine myself and take my kid to a steam engine fair every fall. It's a great technology. I plan on building a larger one some day to power a generator as literally any fuel will work to heat it and there-by generate electricity.

Ok, well I'm into metal so:

Buckethead
Xerath
Cybreed
Angra
Sonata Arctica
Devin Townsend
Opeth
Symphony X
Zonaria
Chthonic
Psycroptic
Hacride
Darkage
Meshuggah
Mastodon

The non-metal:
Mogwai
Guthrie Govan -- hes in a lot of bands, anything he does is amazing
Bassnectar
Ye Banished Privateers (of course)
Beatallica
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

and on and on...
There are more metal bands today than there were in the early 90s when metal was at its peak.

Yes, after all these years we're still running on steam. Everything we are and do is based on the interaction between the water and the sun.

Well, I meant it wouldn't be an improvement, so why bother? :)

More than half not kidding.