That isn't possible here, because to share power among the members of the coop, you need electric transmission lines, and towers to hold them up, which means you need land, right-of-way, etc. You can only get that with the government's blessing, and they've already given that blessing to the local power utility monopoly. They're not going to give it to someone else, because the whole point of a utility monopoly is that you only need one set of infrastructure because it's infeasible to have dozens of sets of transmission lines running all over, so you give one company a monopoly for this, and have them regulated by the government so they don't go nuts with their monopoly. The government can't give other companies the same rights because then they'd be admitting they're doing a poor job in their capacity as regulators.

Maybe, but I doubt that's the case here: cats are attracted to spots where the dirt is soft and it's easy to dig and deposit their turds. It's the same reason that indoor cats will happily use a litter box instead of pooping all over your house. Potted plants and flower beds have nice, soft, diggable dirt, unlike most other places in someone's yard.

The solution is some kind of cat repellent. Some kind of pepper powder might work, and I'm sure there's other commercial purpose-made repellents available as well. I've seen some made more for deer and other animals; they'd probably work for cats too.

Sorry, no. I can understand why you might have that perception, but the fact here is that on this issue, the liberals and the extremist (economic) libertarians (the ones who think all the roads should be privatized, etc.) are in agreement, as well as the Republicans. How can this be? Simple: the liberals will defend any of Obama's actions or inactions, even when they're identical to something the Republicans would have done. So these days, liberals are big proponents of no-strings bailouts, bogus healthcare "reform" that only benefits insurance companies and was designed by a right-wing thinktank, warmongering, NSA spying on citizens, prosecuting marijuana crimes at the Federal level and busting medical marijuana dispensaries, etc. Heck, if Obama suddenly decided to round up homosexuals and put them in concentration camps, and ban contraception too, the liberals would be all for those things as well.

That is just one tiny example of why gov't shouldn't be regulating any businesses, why it shouldn't be involved in any projects, including infrastructure - no competition. If this law passes, it just gives the gov't established monopoly a special power to tax people because they have no competition. No competing grids, no competing roads, no competing water and sewer and garbage providers, etc.etc. This company COULD, in a free market, do the same thing: impose a fee like that. However if it did, people would have a choice to switch to another provider, however that would have been done, but we can't even KNOW at this point, because of gov't meddling, which gives monopolies to the most connected players.

Well you could always let them know how you feel by downloading their app and giving it horrible reviews...

Agreed, certainly not worthy of $200.

Hasn't the speed test app been doing this for many years already?

I remember at 12-13 yo in the mid-'70s, the family lived for a time (father in civil service-transfers were fast-track grade advancement) in south-central MS near the eastern MS/western AL border. There was this old farmer that raised huge patches of watermelons and strawberries that all the kids knew would shoot at you with this old break-action double-barrel 12ga loaded with rock-salt shells (though he couldn't see at distance worth beans) if he spotted you in his fields (and sometimes actually grazed the occasional slow/careless kid with a piece or two, usually one kid a season).

Everybody in the surrounding area knew this and him, including the police & sheriff. That was the way things had been for as long as many if not most who lived there could remember, even as they were kids.

Nobody even thought to call the police. They'd have simply told you that "...you ought-not to be a-trespassin' on no private prop-perty. Ev'rbody know the ol' man'll light bee-hines wit rocksalt if'n he catches ya in is fields! Ya'll'll get hurt ya keep it up, an' if we gotsta carry ya'll to the horsepital, we'd be 'bliged to charge ya'll wit trespass." (there *were* signs).

The old boy sat in a rocking chair on his porch and typically never even stood to shoot. The range was like anywhere from 60 to 100-plus yards. He also loaded these shells of his really light on powder charge. If you had on jeans all you'd get is a nice welt if you were closer.

The only two times I remember any blood having been drawn or any skin penetration or other injury (other than self-inflicted) occurring was when the two kids in question didn't pay attention, had gotten far too close, and were wearing shorts. Only one small piece barely penetrated skin both times, though from the way they'd each screamed at the time, I'm sure it burned like hell.

The first "strawberry-heart" medal-winner popped out the little salt fragment with his own thumbnails, wiped it hydrogen peroxide, stuck a band-aid on it, and carried on. Next season, the other medal-winner's piece of salt was so small it had dissolved before the kid had stopped running, and left but a single drop of blood, a welt, and a painful memory.

I was always careful to stay at the edge of his range, kept real low, and never stayed long or ate/took very much on the occasions I was pressured to join in. We didn't hurt the old man's harvest. He had these huge fields, but a lot of what grew he never picked and it rotted in the fields.

I do "distinctly* remember what the sound of rock salt sounds like whizzing around/past you from a 12ga, some making weird "ricochet"-type whining, moaning, or buzzing sounds, striking vegetation around you, etc.

Nothing like it to get those legs really moving!

It's downright motuh-VAY-shunul! :D

CoD!?!? Bah! Back in *my* day, we went out unarmed and deliberately got shot at with *real* guns just for *fun*!!! :D

Strat

Don't bring up antifreeze; that's cruelty to animals and anyone who does that deserves to be poisoned themselves.

If you want to repel cats, there's lots of effective ways using natural materials, such as hot peppers. There was even a scene in Cool Hand Luke where Paul Newman's character used this trick to deal with some bloodhounds chasing him.

Watch out, some liberals are going to respond here and tell you that Wall Street didn't commit any crimes and that you're full of shit.

Your entire comment is just blissful ignorance and nonsense. The economy is in the crapper because of government, not because there are not enough regulations. It's in the crapper because of government, because of collectivist ideology that makes both socialism and fascism possible.

I am happy to tell you that there won't be a government solution to any climate change 'problem', it's not going to happen. In fact if you care about the environment, you should be rooting AGAINST government in all cases, not for it, so that there is more free market capitalism, more competition, more people trying different things, including things that are explicitly prevented by governments from people even attempting, like trying to figure out more efficient uses for nuclear power.

That depends on what the Mayan Calender says.

Well, if you put it that way there is zero reason to ever buy a console during initial release. All have problems and all have few titles. You could just do what I do and wait until the next gen is out and buy up the old consoles then. Yes, I bought my first 360 in July 3013, 200gb special edition with 40 games for $250, and yes, I bought my first original xbox in 2006 with similar extras. No, I don't care if "all my friends" are playing the new system, because no one comes to my house to play console games and I don't play console games online with my friends.

I agree. $60 a year is reasonable, but $120? $240? What prevents them from raising the price? And once they do what can we do? At least with phones you are under contract, but consoles have no obligation. Tomorrow Microsoft could announce Live is $30 a month instead of the current $5 and what could we do besides throw away our consoles?

Thanks for informing us that there are better options in 2013 than there were in 2006