This, while being a nice feature, feels a lot less helpful when the closest dealers is 300 miles and you live 500 miles in the other direction. Sure, they'll get your car to the dealership, but your trip is shot, you need transportation, and then you have to figure out how to get your car back after it's fixed. When this happens because of some minor, easily repaired part, and you have no way of knowing that, it is still pretty damned frustrating.

Except it wasn't a comparison. It was explicitly stated, "the esteemed young republican from the deep south".

I disagree. There are other solutions. My preferred one is to strip the government's power to give handouts, aid, favor, etc to corporations. Matter of fact, limit the government's power to little more than the ability to protect our rights. I think you'll find that, when the government's power is limited, there is much less incentive for corporations to spend money to control it.

So you're suggesting that we create a new arm of an already corrupt government that has the power to decide how campaigns can be run? An arm whose sole purpose is to make subjective decisions on what does and does not constitute political speech, and, effectively decide who gets to win an election? I'll pass.

I would say that my right to enter into and maintain a voluntary, contractual agreement with an ISP falls under "liberty". Proposed law (as it has been presented in the summary) would remove that right from both me and the ISP, without due process.

If the doctor does this without explaining to me what he's trying and why, there's a problem. Mine's pretty forthcoming when asked questions - if yours isn't, perhaps you should find a new doctor.

I've been using Gnumeric for awhile and am quite happy with it. Happier than I was with OOo Calc anyways.

Exactly, it seems, from our perspective, that the biggest concern should be, when we unbalance nature, what will happen to correct that balance, and how will it affect us?

Why would you need to go to an index when you can search? I'm all for letting the device do the scanning for subject matter for me.

Did the article say something about Government intervention? (I didn't read it, but the summary sure didn't.) I have been led to understand that parenting is not an easy task - it seems to me that any additional information that might help one do it better should be welcomed.

While the GP was wrong, so are you. If you are on my property, I have every right to ban you for what you say. Not that I should, but I have that right. You'll notice that the first amendment says "Congress shall make no law restricting...". The fourteenth amendment applies the bill of rights to the states. School districts, in general, exist by virtue of state law, as an extension of the state government. Therefore, school districts are bound by the bill of rights. You, however, are not.

He wasn't trivializing. He was, in a somewhat roundabout way, saying that 50k is a lot cheaper than what it would cost to implement the same solution yourself. The summary (don't know about the article, didn't read it) was trivializing the difficulty, the GP was refuting the summary.

It's also relevant to note that, as far as I can tell, I have never signed a contract with any broadband provider indicating that any particular service would be provided for any length of time in the future - other than the month that I've already paid for. I'm fairly sure the agreement states that I'm not even guaranteed that - they just have to give me my money back if they discontinue my service.

Yes, that's what I want. A combination of an ineffective, bitter company and a government agency managing my internet connection. That could only improve our service, right?

I have several email lists that the recipients cannot remove themselves from, and they're hardly magic. They're saved in my mail client, and thankfully nobody else has access to modify them. If I were repeatedly petitioning congressmen, I'd most likely use one of those for that purpose.

I see no reason that a government run by majority rule, by definition, would prevent you from getting arrested for your opinion. Democracy does not necessarily mean freedom, or liberty. It could be argued that freedom and liberty cannot exist without a democracy, but it is certainly possible for the people to vote their freedom away.