Why are states optimal? Is it because 50-200+ years ago, this patch of geography was chosen to be grouped together? How does this imply that all states have the resources necessary for their own road building? By directing those funds at the federal level, you can average out those differences, and ensure that if you drive across the country, you don't have to deal with roads of different quality. This should then allow equal benefits from interstate commerce. The same argument applies for a common social safety net, as you then can minimize the differences in poverty/health/nutrition in a way that doesn't require all states to have identical resources per citizen.

But there's this constant push to decentralize things, and "let the states handle this" so they offer different things, and solve things via competition. Why would you want competition between states? Who benefits from something like that? How many companies do you know that construct teams to work on identical problems in competition? What would happen if you did that? You'd get something like Sears ( http://www.businessweek.com/ar... ), where because of the competition, you have parts of the company actively opposing other parts to receive resources, causing the entire thing to lose out.

Not everything is a scheme to force Stalin-like five year plans on the nation. Not everything is a slippery slope to totalitarianism.

Yeah. They never feel the need to legislate something, right? Only work to fix the real problems? They'd never decide that they needed a bit of extra time to legislate something just because they felt the need, right?

I'll just leave this here for people who maybe aren't absolute morons:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Davis_(politician)#2013_filibuster

Clearly, they need to be designed with a pre-set kill limit.

I see it's spelled "Canipre", but one flip and it's Canpire. Canada-vampire. Canpire.

For a copyright organization. That wants to pull fees from everyone for ever.

Did no one think of this?

So we vote for science now? Whatever is most popular gets to be true?

Who would you want to be in charge of this? I tend to think that an international committee of actual astronomers is probably going to do a better job than letting a company decide.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2002/6/17/

Hopefully this remake will cover the vital "keep people from stealing your umbrella" survival skills.

You mean AMC. Turner Classic Movies shows full movies with no commercials, along with a few minutes of commentary before and after. It is exactly what a movie channel should be. Of all the channels that Ted created, it is probably the only one that has stuck to the original goals uncorrupted.

Comment to hopefully undue me clicking too fast on the moderation list.

It should be "funny," not flamebait.