Just curious - does your insurance company force you through legislation to buy their product? If so, can you tell me their name, so I can avoid them and their products? If they do not, then can you see the issue with government mandated health care? Thanks.

Are these same rules going to apply to the EU, the member governments, and municipalities as well? Of course, collecting that 2% would be just book keeping ...

As 60% of the energy usage is all the third-world countries, the answer is obvious.

You may be correct on the Chinese fire sale. However, your assertion that the taxpayers of the United States are going to see all that money recouped is patently false at this time. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703916004576271382418887092.html http://www.autoblog.com/2011/04/21/report-fed-mulling-summer-sale-of-gm-stock-would-take-big-loss/ The stock owned by the government needed to be sold at $50/share to break even. But what's 11 billion dollars when you want to raise government spending by another 1.6 trillion? A rounding error, to be sure.

"So far I haven't heard anyone blame the Rock 'n Roll music, but if social networks aren't a good enough culprit, you could also try blaming video games." Love the snide tag there, Taco. While the discussion of turning off the social media is one that is disturbing, do you think they are considering this in response to some hooligans who are staying out late, smoking a cigarette or three? Perhaps you missed the chavs and chavettes stating that this was about showing the rich and the police that this was a demonstration that they could do what they wanted. As you seem to imply that this plan is a poor one, can you suggest a better plan? Here's mine - arm all shop owners with shot guns.

If Sony wants my business back, then I am going to need a shiny new version of Final Fantasy VII, updated with today's and tomorrow's graphics. If Sony wanted to erase all bad feelings, AND increase market share, then FFVII. I could forgive many things if this happened.

Was the Stimulus Program not mean for "Shovel-ready" projects? Such as road improvement, bridge refurbishment, and other "necessary infrastructure" projects? Question: How much have state and local taxes risen on gasoline since the early 80's? Question: If the Federal Gas tax goes into a trust fund, and said trust fund is completely exhausted, does that mean that there have been no tax collections to cause said depletion? If not, then what other factors have affected the highway improvement costs? How have environmental sustainability studies, indigenous species reports, and unionized labor costs affected this fund's disbursements? Question: If construction is the primary driver of the unemployment figure (and I sincerely doubt that), then why have four years of non-construction not created a higher unemployment number? Question: Who was in charge of the Senate, House of Representatives, and Executive Branch up until 2010? Could you say that there would be some culpability by those parties in not passing that all-important SAFETEA legislation? Question: Those environmental studies - how effective are they? Question: How much does a petroleum company make off off a gallon of gasoline? 2-4 cents. Question: What is the combined amount of taxes on a gallon of gasoline, on average? 45-55 cents. Question: Is another 17 cent increase going to make things better, if as you point out, the current fund is tapped out, and unable to start work in a timely fashion?

They will be counteracted by the hot grits in the pants.

Best post in this thread.

I await Guild Wars 2. I like not having a monthly fee to play a game.

They misspelled tauntaun for one of the captions ... D;