I actually made most of this comment in another post about the NSA but it bears repeating.

ACLU Petition to Stop Massive Government Spying Program

Please sign that petition. Or go through the EFF action page. Or Write your Representative or Write your Senators. They are easy enough to find. Seriously. If you aren't telling the people that represent you how wrong, awful, and downright unacceptable the NSA actions are they have no reason to stick their neck out to change it.

Nobody is asking you to fight a war, like previous generations of Americans have. Just sign a petition. Write a letter. It is that easy to improve this country. Whether you think that is true or not, remember that an outcry from a small group of people have altered politics before and it can happen again. The only thing preventing this country from getting better is silence.

ACLU Petition to Stop Massive Government Spying Program

Please sign that petition. Or Write your Representative or Write your Senators. They are easy enough to find. Seriously. If you aren't telling the people that represent you how wrong, awful, and downright unacceptable the NSA actions are they have no reason to stick their neck out to change it.

Nobody is asking you to fight a war, like previous generations of Americans have. Just sign a petition. Write a letter. It is that easy to improve this country. Whether you think that is true or not, remember that an outcry from a small group of people have altered politics before and it can happen again. The only thing preventing this country from getting better is silence.

Well, if the companies in question get a subsidy from their government aren't they able to lower the price of their products? Thus making it plausible that the companies would sell their products at or below the cost to manufacture them? I mean, if I was a company looking for some profit, selling something at way cheaper prices than my competitors because I just received some free money sounds like a great idea.

I don't know much about industry with regards to financial reporting and subsidization, but that seems to be the argument I hear the most. The companies aren't losing money, simply getting it from somewhere else.

Same thing happened where I lived. They made a massive push for us to conserve electricity. Apparently we did so well that the utility was losing money, so they jacked up the rates. There was a lot of rage over it, summarized by the question: What's the personal benefit of energy conservation? Well, I'll tell you that it isn't lower bills.

China can only impose a tariff on the goods going across the Chinese border. Since their shit is cheaper than ours anyway (due to their subsidy), imposing an additional tariff would most likely not be that disastrous to our (presumed) efforts to sell panels to China.

If China places the tariff on another product, they might start a "trade war" that would have wide-sweeping negative consequences for both countries. China may make a lot of the goods thus putting them in a position of power, but that power only lasts as long as people's willingness/ability to purchase from them. The moment anyone (including themselves) puts a significant obstacle to doing business with them their power begins to shrink. In essence, it would be like chopping off your arm to use it as a club against your opponent.

Just not premonition it would seem (did many jedi even have that power?). Telekinesis and manipulating minds are still up for grabs.

Are the high gas prices because Obama decided not to give more subsidies to gas companies? Is it because Obama has somehow magically started a secret war in Iran that nobody knows about but Republican candidates? Or is Obama literally 51% or more of the oil speculators?

I'm all for making your opponent look bad, but I have a hard time seeing how Obama is to blame for current gas prices. Feel free to enlighten me.

Serious question: Why would you want to get that fixed? I am quite fine with very few people being able to obtain assault rifles and machine guns. In fact, I'm profoundly thankful for it. I fully support the rights of being able to own guns, but an assault rifle has only one real purpose: Firing at human beings. And there are definitely people out there that would use them for that purpose in because their nuts. With hand guns, rifles, and shotguns, they can't mow down a crowd because they think differently. Besides that, you even state that the automatics are generally used sparingly because of ammo usage and aim issues. So why would untrained civilians need them in a time of revolution/riot/uprising/whatever-you-call-it?

A gun that can fire so quickly and do so much damage should not be readily accessible. People may have a right to bear arms, but every person has a right to live.

I am in my early to mid twenties. I will never work an 80 hour week for someone else when I am being compensated for a 40 hour week. Period. I am not in the business of giving discount labor (amount paid over hours worked). I am not in the business of making free money for other people. I am in the business of working for compensation.

That being said. I do tend to work a bit more than 40 hours, but its not expected of me. The moment it is, is the moment I find another job. I will also gladly work 80 hours for myself or in a situation where I know I will be fairly compensated. But I work to live, I don't live to work.

Your comparison to The Dark Knight is flawed. It would seem the DLC you get when you buy the game is not needed for the completion of the game. The last 15 minutes of the movie are required for the completion of the movie.

A more apt comparison is you've bought a movie used, expecting there to be special features. Then it turns out you have to pay extra for those special features. Had you bought the movie new they would have given you a code so you could go download the special features free of charge.

It's not exactly a business model I would endorse, but it's hardly pilfering the pockets of orphans. I just prefer not to deal with DLC at all. If a game is too pricey or relies too heavily on DLC, I don't buy it. If it shows up later on sale and/or with the DLC included, then I consider buying it.

As I am sure many people are aware, the US government is a sprawling organization so it might be useful to know which department this comes from.

The request was made by the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity which falls under the umbrella of the National Institute of Health, which is an agency for the US Department of Health and Human Services. According to wikipedia the USDHHS is the biomedical and health related agency like how the National Science Foundation is the science and engineering related agency.

Just because the candidates you know about don't represent your values doesn't mean there isn't someone better suited on the ballot. Or someone that is running a write-in campaign. Seriously, if you dislike all the candidates equally, then I don't believe you have actually bothered to learn about any of them.

That is all besides the point because not voting is not the same as abstaining. When you don't vote, you're voice is not heard, at all. Period. End of sentence. They don't know why you didn't vote and frankly they don't care, because the guy which the most votes from the people who actually did vote, will win. By not voting you have officially voted for the person with the most votes. Hope you really don't care because you could have been an accomplice in getting the next jackass elected who will run your government into the ground. And that is worse than voting for him. Because really, your apathy for your government (and by extension your country) is why that person got elected. Not because you made a conscious decision that you thought was the best course of action.

As oppose to people who "liberate" someone else's IP who are just doing it for the common good.

I would take shit like this more seriously if it was a bunch of professional artists, musicians, and developers taking this stance. But I think you will be hard-pressed to find someone who says "Sure, take all of my work, that only I could have produced, that supports my ability to eat and live under a roof, and freely distribute all of it." People have to survive and nobody is entitled to the fruits of someone-else's labors.

You have to walk before you can run. That is why it is important. Not only that, but the stuff we could learn from it will help us greatly in improving our travel technology. How many more experiments will we be able to do in space when the cost to take stuff there drops drastically? This isn't just about rich people getting to float around. It's about rich people floating around and NASA (and other space agencies) getting to launch fuck-tons of experimental stuff into space to see what we can learn.

http://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/good-idea-poor-follow-through-congress-mistakes-sopa

That will take you to a blog post about SOPA and ACLU's opposition to it. The last link in the article is a link to a form where you fill in the blanks and it will send off a letter to your representatives. It is one of the easiest ways to contact your representatives about your concerns. Forget your feelings about the ACLU or other such crap. This bill/legislation/power-grab needs to be stopped, and it is your duty as an American to let your representatives know that you oppose it.