Until they start advocating nuclear power, the greenie solution is to freeze in the dark. And all for a bogus AGW scare.

Climate Changes And Increased Rainfall 'Greening' the Sahara Desert Becoming Green Due to Climate Change August 4, 2009.

It's more that people are automatically doubting scientists (not science), and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's not like scientists are less human and more angelic than any other human who claims authority on a subject.

Perma-students aren't much of a resource at all. Neither are political scientists, if the one in my family is representative of the average political science graduates.

People are an important resource only after they get done with their education and produce something useful in exchange for what they get from the rest of us. And the way we make sure that the education isn' t just a waste of time, is to expect most folks who get an education to pay for it. If you can't pay for it, it was probably a waste of your time and the bank's money.

Some places and some times, maybe. But even the Founding Fathers of the USA found it necessary to use psuedonyms.

The question is how stable is a system that does not allow for anonymity or private conversation? How easy is it for that kind of a system to be misused?

Maybe you should review this List of journalists killed in Russia for a list of folks who could have used the protection of anonymity.

Right. Cool the core of the planet down by piping the heat to the surface and venting it to space. Makes a lot of sense to me. That's fossil heat you know, been there since the creation of the planet, not really renewable. Well, not unless you think the heats being created by slow nuclear reactions in the core. And if that's the case, why don't we just pile up some of that nuclear material and make some electricity for light too....

Of course not. Most road/bridge construction is paid from local, state and federal gas taxes. Whatever agency for designing the road system is responsible for putting the roads where the CITIZENS go. And amazingly enough, the workers at MS in WA are citizens of the state of WA and pay for the roads through their gas taxes.. This is not a special treat for Microsoft.

A 'license tax' seems strange. I doubt that there are that many businesses in WA that make huge amounts of money via licenses. It's possible that the 'license tax' originated as a rape-Microsoft tax in the first place. It seems like just a way to impose an income tax on companies that make a lot of money via licensing, without imposing an income tax in general.

Really, are fire, water, police and local roads a state problem in WA? Mostly I thought that police, fire, and local roads were paid through local property tax, and that water was usually paid according to the metered usage.

Just because MS makes a huge profit margin compared to most WA business does not at all imply they guzzle WA resources any faster than the other businesses.

Brain drain? Some folks refuse to work in that rainy area, just because it's a rainy area. It wasn't that long ago that Research Triangle area of North Carolina started. It was created to start a brain drain elsewhere, which it did. There's no reason MS can't move there, or start their own research park elsewhere than WA. It's not like it's the climate that drew all those brains to WA. Santa Barbara I could believe, but not WA so much.

If you aren't trying to create a new word, it's TANSTAAFL. There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. See: http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/t/TANSTAAFL.html

I suppose so, if they actually think you are like them. Osama bin Laden doesn't think you are like him, and isn't going to respond to nice treatment. He want's you to bow to Mecca, and doesn't plan on stopping until you do. Or is bowing to Osama's will part of 'being fair and decent'?

Envy is a simple emotion. You want what the other guy has. Handling it so it doesn't cause trouble is not simple, and I didn't say it was.

You really must have a strange reading of history to believe that dropping your weapons and turning your back on Genghis Khan would have saved your life. You can mean no harm to a thief or rapist and even prove it to a thief or rapist, but that certainly won't stop them from their predilections, it just makes it easier.

There's a whole world of options between pacifist (means them no harm) and murderous psychopath (will kill them if you get a chance). You've totally left out any options for self-defense which seems insane.

And yet, that would do nothing for the folks who want us dead or enslaved because we don't kneel in the right direction when we pray. Envy is only one of the evil impulses out there, and even that simple problem isn't as easily appeased as you think it is.

Nonsense. Quite a few election officials, like the one that 'found' a box of ballots in his trunk in the Franken/Coleman election, can get all the private time he or she needs with the machine, though it may be more difficult in your particular precinct.

Or you have the election recount panel (in MN again) that had an initial count of 1100 ballots but found only 1000 paper ballots in the boxes. They decided to keep the initial count, even though the mostly likely scenario was that somebody double fed a batch of ballots through the scanner. Like the guy said, "It's not who votes that counts but who counts the votes."

No, it's the MS Research dept that could be said to be getting something for free. They are getting money and not producing anything of worth.

The shareholders paid for their shares. And before the money is given to the Research dept, it belongs to the shareholders. If Bill Gates can't do something with that money to make more money, then he should be returning it to the shareholders so they can use it. Whether the shareholders use that money to invent a cancer cure, or go to Cancun is none of your business.