Naaah, their three weapons are Enya, drisheen, road bowling and Michael Flatley.

The "ignorant and self-absorbed" don't bother me quite as much as the posters who've completely lost touch with the concept that (1) if there isn't enough electricity to meet people's needs, the best idea is to (2) make more electricity.

"SI conversion with stimulus $$ is one of the better ideas I've heard. It creates jobs"

Gnick, there's a chap by the name of Bastiat at the door. He has a glazier who'd like to meet you.

...you have an administration and a public prepared to back their ninjas, and what those ninjas do.

For example, a country that gets a case of the shivering fantods because it finds out a prisoner was forced to wear womens' underwear on his head is a country unlikely to endorse the general range of ninja-type activity.

Under this administration, we want all nukes eliminated. We also want our special forces to do only those things they'd be comfortable reading about in the New York Times two years hence. So - it looks like we'll be counting on what's left of the ground pounders and flattops for some time to come.

It takes me about sixty seconds to flip through the monthly flyer from the laughably named "Science Fiction Book Club" and I don't think I've bought ten books from them in the last three years.

By the time I've crossed out all the sword and sorcery crap, all the vampire and zombie crap, all the TV and movie spinoffs, all the $30 comic books, oops, "graphic novels", and all the reprints of SF from decades ago, there are usually less than five new SF books a month to choose from.

I see exactly the same thing in my library and in bookstores. For the love of Pete, can't we separate out all the fantasy/gothic stuff so SF readers can more easily find what we want to find?

....they have a ready made response any time they are asked about turning off XP's activation requirement.

...without pro gaming leagues, scrapbooking stores, and feng shui consultants.

But when the last cell-phone-cover kiosk closes down, ladies and gentlemen, the new Dark Age truly will be upon us.

"Given that, I can't imagine why you would bother to cart it all the way there just to cart it back."

There was a discussion about this in one of the space-related usenet groups a couple of years ago.

As I recall it, the problem is that it takes a lot of fuel and engine power to brake a big spacecraft into Earth orbit on the return from Mars (or anywhere else outside the Earth-Moon system for that matter). And there is no particular reason why the returning crew and their Martian samples -have- to do that.

So at this point NASA expects the return from Mars to be a straight in ballistic return to Earth's atmosphere without a stop in Earth orbit. Hence the Orion CM with its heatshield has to be carried to Mars and back.

... with a lawyer can tie up any major energy development in this country for a decade, and in many cases permanently.

This applies just as much to wind, hydro (what big dams are being built these days?) and solar, as it does to those eeeevil coal and nuke plants.

And with the Obama adminstration counting on trial lawyers, NIMBY "activists" and the save-the endangered-mosquito crowd as mainstays of its coalition, I look for no hope and little change.

"...and massively bolstered our economy with a whole new class of green businesses."

There's a gentleman by the name of Bastiat at the door. He has a glazier he wants you to meet.

So, when a customer bought a printer from you at your sticker price, did you throw in a free cable, or did you charge him the same $14.95 as the guy who was price shopping?

An uncle of mine retired as an E-9 with 30 years service, Korea -and- Vietnam.

When he was asked what skills/talents were most useful in the army, he instantly replied, "Being able to fall asleep anywhere, any time of day. If you can't catch 30 minutes sleep when you have the opportunity, you'll regret it."

Personally, I find nothing captures the authenticity of perfomance, the essential "you are there" je ne sais quoi-ness of musical experience, quite as well as the Edison Wax Cylinder.

"You think unfettered consumerism is a human right?"

No, I think people should buy only those things which they can afford.

If Obama reinstates the draft in a few years you'll be on the Group W bench and you'll be golden.