You can set your preferences so that submissions show up on the front page, and you can vote from there. I participate.

OWS probably does have a lot of stoners, but their agenda is lessening the historically huge difference between the 1% and everyone else.

The Tea Party, OTOH, is for smaller government and lower taxes and paying off the national debt. We have far more prisoners per capita than any other country, and half of them are nonviolent drug crimes. Imagine the cost of investigating, arresting, trying, and incarcerating all those people? Legalization should be right up the tea party's alley.

The alternatives are the Green Party and the Libertarian party, both of whom are for legalization. Both were on enough ballots to win the Presidency last election if the corporate media hadn't convinced everyone that a vote for a loser was a wasted vote. If that were true, a vote for Romney was wasted.

You might want to go with DSL, it serves my purposes, even though I think $47 a month is too much.

So what? It's still a ripoff.

You haven't heard of the firehose? If you didn't vote against the story don't bitch about it being posted.

Maybe, but not now. Netflix? Pshaw, most cable channels are on the internet. The truth is only flamebait to the stupid.

The cable companies are killing themselves. I've been OTA for years, 400 channels but I might want to watch six of them and you want $80? Are you insane?

Cable use to be a good deal. A dozen extra channels, including HBO, none with commercials and local TV without snow or ghosts for ten bucks a month.

Now? Not only do they have commercials but you get commercials during the actual content! Empty-V played music videos, now they show the same reality TV bullshit you get OTA (which no longer has ghosts or snow since it's now digital). History showed ancient Greece, WWII, etc, now they have "Ice Road Truckers". Discovery used to have science and tech, now it's "Trick My Truck".

They expect me to pay them for that?

But I'm a geezer, I remember 3 black and white stations in a large city. I get half a dozen stations in a small city, crystal clear, in higher definition than cable streams.

You think I'm paying for that?

Flamebait, my ass. Wake up. If cable wants me back they can offer a la carte with no fucking commercials. If I'm paying for content and with my eyeballs you're charging me twice and you're ripping me off. Fuck cable and the horse it rode in on,

Wishful thinking. When Galileo's presentation was found to be at odds with religion by the ultimate arbiter of such things (the then-Pope), they certainly were in conflict.

The pope both misunderstood the science, or he was one of the man wolves in sheep's clothing that was elected pope, which is why Martin Luther broke. The pope is not religion.

When religion tries to tell us how the world came to be and why we are here, it falls flat on its face, each and every time.

Science says how, religion says why.

As I said, either you misunderstand the science or you misunderstand the religion. Clearly you have no clue about religion.

You never heard the phrase "no harm, no foul?" You're not going to hurt me for torrenting my book (out soon), on the contrary you're doing me a favor by giving me free advertising. As Doctorow says, nobody ever lost a dime to piracy but many have gone hungry from obscurity.

The RIAA hates piracy because they don't need it, they have radio, TV, and movies. Your sharing indie files does harm them, because you might find a good indie band, buy their stuff, which leaves you less money to spend on RIAA tunes.

OTOH if you sell copies of my book*, you are in possession of money that I should own. You have very literally stolen from me.

* That is, if you're making copies and selling them, not reselling copies you bought.

History is ripe with companies that built a product that does something different

History is developed to the point of readiness for harvesting and eating with companies that built a product that does something different? I think the word you're vainly searching for is rife.

Legitimate religions aren't tax dodges. Yes, you can deduct your tithes and alms but many don't (I don't). What a legitimate church collects goes towards paying its bills and other expenses, whatever is left over goes to the poor. The church I attend (on the west side of town where the rich folks live) sent millions to Africa last year, as well as making sure that the poorest kids in town and their families actually got to eat during Christmas vacation (school breakfasts and lunches is often all some of these kids get), and completely redid the two poorest schools, new playground equipment, refurbished and painted the buildings, etc.

Legitimate religions don't make anyone rich. Sham religions like scientology do.

That was insightful. If your understanding of science conflicts with your understanding of your religion, you either misunderstand the science or the religion, because they are not in conflict.

if you really want to talk to a young earth creationist (I don't know why you would)

To teach, of course. And I echo everything you said.