On the other hand, my elected representative was elected to represent MY (and my neighbors') interests, not the interests of bleeding heart liberals in NY. If by "increasing their awareness of others, empathy towards others" they stop representing my and my neighbors' interests, they will not be re-elected.

Put another way, their power derives from consent of the governed. If they lose that consent by legislating in a way counter to their constituents' wishes, they will not remain in power. Even if it means the feelings of someone from the other side of the country get hurt.

The 9/11 perpetrators were mostly Saudi with 2...3 from Egypt, Lebanon and the UAE. No one from Afghanistan, no one from Iraq. The justification that they went to school in Iraq kind of skips over the idea that more of them went to school in the UK and Saudi Arabia. The idea that OBL was hiding there so we had to destroy an entire country to get at him was both wrong, and not really justified by the fact that he was pleased, but surprised, to hear that we had been attacked. The fact that we shot him when we had overwhelming force on our side and didn't bring him to any witness stand is, at least, suspicious.

Do I claim to know what happened? No. But I will say this: if you step back from the official story, the first thing you note is that this puzzle fits together really, really badly if you use the lines drawn by the US government. It's likely, IMHO, to be close to the real truth -- the best and most enduring lies usually are -- but it clearly isn't the truth. We know of many problems: There were no aluminum rods being used for centrifuges. There were no WMDs. Neither country -- Iraq or Afghanistan -- had much, if anything, to do with our being attacked. Saddam had, in fact, given us access to every site of any consequence. Almost everything Bush and Cheney said was distorted or outright false. Both undertakings failed to even vaguely resemble the minimalist interventions we were sold.

What does 9/11 have to do with Iraq? Nothing. So why are you bringing it up? No one said it did. No one thinks it did. You could maybe, MAYBE, make an argument about something for oil. But 9/11? You're off in LaLa Land.

Contrary to what you may think, there was WMDs. Gas was used to kill hundreds of thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq. When we went in, it was not on rockets ready to be shot...it was in under ground bunkers and storage facilities. A lot of it was shipped off to Syria. Do some REAL research, don't just read Media Matters headlines. Stop letting billionaire George Soros brainwash you. Stop hating America. Do some real research: look at source documents.

A 'Soviet' invasion? Wasn't there a Simpson's episode about that?

We did hit the reset button with Russia. That's gone well, hasn't it? We're just two peas in a pod now...

Don't forget he mentioned they were in space, so it will take a lot longer for them to slow down than you think. The timing is tight enough that it could cause some issues.

If you were a prudent mariner you would be DRing on your paper chart at a reasonable interval. Aids to navigation (buoys/lighthouses/etc...) aren't affected by your GPS unit and also provide a good means to determine your position. If all else fails and you are that worried about where you are, a sextant and sight reduction tables still work. If you can't handle all that, then you should NOT be out at sea at night.

Hell, here's a quick procedure that will get you in the general vicinity of your destination (close enough to use the aforementioned nav aids) which doesn't require any knowledge of sight reductions (assuming you're in the northern hemisphere):

1. Determine the latitude of your destination
2. Measure the elevation (angular distance) of Polaris above the horizon using your sextant
3. Determine the local variation to convert your magnetic compass heading to true heading based on your estimated location on your chart
4. Compare the Polaris angle to the latitude of your destination. If the star is too low on the horizon, head due north (true). If it's too high, head due south (true)
5. Once Polaris is at the proper altitude in the sky, turn due west or due east (true) depending which coast you're on
6. Don't get lost at sea like a retard next time

Strontium Nitrate...possible, not likely (depends on their chemistry controls)
Strontium Chloride...only if saltwater got into the core
Strontium Oxide/Hydroxide...probable, depending on how easily the oxide forms and how long it takes. Probably had aerated water following the event, water also always has plenty of OH ions around to react.
Strontium Sulfate...possible, depends on their chemistry controls
Strontium Carbonate...not sure on this one, inclined to say it would only be present in trace amounts, but that's a WAG

And Spacex has had non-engine flight failures. One of which was caused by poor separation timing: residual thrust in the first stage after stage separation caused it to impact the second stage prior to ignition. Oops! What is this, rocket science?!

Why is the owner of the means of production unjustified in having ownership of those produced? He put his capital at risk to start it up, and he fairly compensates people for their labor. They are neither forced into working for him, nor prevented from leaving at their leisure (in the US, at least) if they do not feel that they are fairly compensated. They also have the ability to come up with a new product or improved process to become the next owner themselves.

Marxism is the greatest bastion of those too lazy to innovate and care for themselves. It may look nice in paper, but it failed in the USSR, it failed in Cuba, and it's failing the Chinese as we speak, despite the claims of such exalted "intellectuals" as Elizabeth "I'm a Cherokee!" Warren. IIRC, marxism (lower case 'm' intended in a derogatory manner) calls for 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his need'...how many college marxists actually believe that? How many would be willing to apply that to their grading system? Probably only those failing.

And just because I can't resist violating Godwin's Law when answering a commie...who has killed more people, Hitler's Nazis or Marx's ideologues? The Cambodian killing fields, Stalin's purges, Chairman Mao's purges. There is more blood, hate, intolerance and exploitation under the Marxist ideology than anything else. The Robespierre period of the French Revolution is on a much smaller scale, as is wahhabi-ism...those are the two closest competitors I can think of.

All that being said, if you are a US citizen, the first amendment does guarantee your right to have and espouse completely stupid opinion, as it guarantees my right to ridicule you mercilessly for having said opinion. Regardless, please keep your marxism to yourself and stop trying to spread its hatred, thanks...the tens of millions of people who have died under its thumb will thank you.

One thing to note...that old radar may tell people that *something* is there, but it won't be able to guide a SAM or AAA to take it down, since they would be using other radars (which the aircraft should have been specifically designed for). Sure, someone may get lucky with an IR shot, but there's a biiiiig difference between an old tyme air search radar and a fire control radar.

"I don't even have to go on about all the examples of the Tea Party's racism and immigrant hate, or gun love."

Yes, yes you do. Please provide concrete video, audio, or pictoral evidence of Tea Party racism. I've only heard circular arguments of 'the tea party is racist because the media says it's racist because people have told them it's racist (because they heard on the news it's racist).' The typical "proof" is the shouting of racial epithets and the spitting on of a member of the CBC, but many (many) videos have shown that no racial epithets were shouted, the spitting was accidental from some guy yelling (you can clearly see this in the videos), not him spitting a loogey.

Hell, you could make some $$$, as far as I know, Andrew Breitbart is still offering $10k for verifiable proof of racism at Tea Party rallies.

And before you go all 'but the tea parties are all made up of whites!'...OWS has disproportionate racial representation of white protesters, the tea party rallies tend to be equal to the overall racial makeup of the general population. Again, look at the videos.

So please, provide some physical evidence for your assertion.

Nah, I can't speak for USAFA, but USNA is a very, very good engineering school (ABET accredited, no less). I majored in Aero/Astro, and am currently working on my masters in Astro Engineering at NPS, which is also a very well known and regarded engineering graduate school. By trade I drive submarines around, but my interests, clearly, are in space...so there is latitude to get an excellent education at a price that is hard to beat (if you don't mind signing away years of your life) in the subject you like. And best of all you'll be very attractive to companies due to your military background and the connections you've made.

But you do sign away years of your life...

As an aside, I left UCSD to enlist in the navy with no intention of going to the Naval Academy. So there are alternate routes to get in if you really decide you want to go.

Here's a thought experiment for you.

How many innocent people have we killed? How many innocent people have terrorists killed? By killing terrorists will we see a net reduction in the number of innocent people killed?

I submit to you that terrorists have killed a far, far larger number of people than we have, and that NOT killing terrorists would result in a higher death rate than what we see now. To put it more generally: through inaction, we would be killing more innocent people than we currently are through action.

Yeah, if she had left out the last sentence, I would say that GP left the post intentionally vague to whore some karma from both sides.

We are already seeing increases in violent storms and flooding and heat waves, and that costs money and lives.

Fail, you are confusing weather with climate, a common fallacy. Try again.