In politics, sanity seems to be a hindrance more than a benefit. It seems that when someone makes a mistake, they are trapped along 3 major paths: accept the blame and have it destroy your career, blame someone else and destroy their career, or find an "expert" who will agree with you and use him as a scapegoat and destroy his career. Experienced politicians seem to have learned the safest route is the third option.

Did I miss anything?

It's a simple and cunning means of scooping up years and billions of dollars of research. The fact that it was so easily captured is simply the blind faith that the military and intelligence community put into GPS systems. It's been reported a few times now that there are methods of exploiting, or at least disabling, GPS for certain regions. It's just sad that the billions of dollars didn't include someone as crafty as the Iranian engineer or engineers who came up with the drone-trap plan.

I'm just waiting for the "Cow Tipping Ring busted by Predator B drone" headline.

Actually, driving kills so many people, we should outlaw any machinery that can be driven. Then we could finally be free of all driver-related injuries/deaths. Even the global warming crowd could get in on the less burning of fossil fuels and the conservatives couldn't deny the sheer volume of jobs created by the newly bolstered rickshaw industry! It's the perfect solution!

Some cities have ordinances against "garbage" left out in view. They tend to consider leaves/branches in large piles as reasonable enough to collect fees (taxes) from.

Ah, good point. I hadn't thought about those accounts and you're correct in that anonymous is dubious at best in their skill regarding differentiating those they steal from.

Because we're in a recession and those private firms would cost orders of magnitude greater than utilizing the US military (which is already doing construction for other countries.) I'm not saying that this is something that should be standard procedures for our country, but our infrastructure is in dire need of some repair. Basically, I do agree that we should have private industry perform these tasks, if our taxes are already tasking our military to build infrastructure... why not have it be on our own soil?

I can see how certain cities can see a value in regulating their citizens to recycle/compost certain items. I just can't see how this will work in certain area's especially like NYC where people have such small living areas already. Will they be required to keep a compost heap within their apartments, or just haul it to the roof for a communal heap?

I just dont think it would be feasible for people who don't own any outdoor property to fulfill this type of directive. When I lived in Queens, I did own outdoor property, but it consisted of approximately 4 square feet in front of my apartment that already was taken up by a bush. Perhaps composting is much more complicated than I've been led to believe, but then this just becomes a money saving venture for the city (which won't lead to a tax break) and more work for it's citizens.

Wait, you store your actual cash inside a credit account? I thought that savings/checking accounts stored your money and credit lines were simply lines of accounting that you borrowed against and paid back (sometimes with interest/fees) at a later date.

That said, if you get a credit card statement later in the month, you'll still have your checking/savings money to pay your bills and just dispute the credit card statement PRIOR to paying it in full. I mean, if you get a statement that says you owe $15 trillion dollars you're not going to go "well, guess I'll just mail the banks all that I have for now and hope i can pay it off before the sun explodes." No way. You'll call your credit card company or bank and dispute those fraudulent charges then and there.

I'd rather see my government throw a few hundred million on clinical trials that lead to cheap and effective medicines than let it throw billions away on innane military ventures.

Actually, for every dollar wasted in Iraq and Afghanistan I would bet we could have been closer to curing many currently uncurable diseases. Close to 1 trillion dollars put into research can go a remarkably long way.

For once, a great means of spending my tax dollars! Effective law enforcement with a hint of zazz!

Well, if we assume they had (for example) 1 million dollars. Did they spend it on a few roads, or buy 1 million dollars worth of signs?

The a few roads in my area that have the signs still look like they did 5 years ago and no work has been done on them (that I can see.) Most do look fixed/repaired/new, but there are at least 3 that look terrible.

Or better yet, slash entitlement spending and only cut down military actions on foreign soil and diminish. Put the armed forces to work here in America what they're trying to do elsewhere: building infrastructure.

I know... that's not all they're doing in Iraq/Afganistan, but the military is filled with already-paid, able-bodied men and women who could be tasked at doing labor that results in improved quality throughout the country. Add to that the fact that those throngs of men and women would be earning money that would be spent inside America it would certainly aid the smaller towns that they would be working around. It's just a terrible idea that would never work, however....

There will always be lobbyists.

Like throwing a glass of water into the ocean.

Let there be no confusion... all those stars toss more radiation than our little toys.