As I recall we ripped out all the passenger rail or sold it to the freight lines long, long ago. Outside of Amtrak (which has to give right-of-way to freight), and light rail, what infrastructure are you referring to?

As for subsidies, only in America do people think that rail should somehow magically "pay for itself"... the equivalent would be roads "paying for themselves", i.e., all toll roads, all the time. No one (outside of crazy libertarians) thinks that is a good idea. Basically, SOME sunk investment into transportation is necessary every year. Personally, I prefer more rail.

As an alternative, I would be ok with a pay-everything-as-you-go system that the libertarians want, IF we put policies in place to squeeze the income distribution into a much narrower range - say a factor of 100 total difference between richest and poorest. Otherwise, I don't see how such a system is anything but extremely unfair.

Well, as stated above, one option is to rent a car for the occasional weekend trip. Considering the cost of a second vehicle, you'd have to really hate renting to want to pour out the devaluation costs, insurance costs, and other maintenance/fuel just to drive your own vehicle to Auntie Sarah's twice a year. Seriously, it's like people that claim they "need" a pickup truck to move stuff and use it once in 4 years to move a mattress set. You really didn't "need" it, but whatever.

It's what the anarchists used to say: "If elections could change your life, they would be illegal."

"Appears to be casing houses"... I'm not sure this has been substantiated. I don't find it likely that Trayvon was casing houses in his own damn neighborhood. Like he had a mental to-do list "buy skittles for bro... get a can of tea... oh yeah, rob the neighbors". And you KNOW that if there was a string of break-ins by asians, or white chicks, that you would not report every asian or white chick you saw, because that's a broad-as-hell description. I'm also shocked that people supposedly SAW the thieves in all 8 previous robberies. Probably more like some people got robbed and some people saw black people... and they were associated. Think about it. This is just racist all around and disgusting.

A 17 year old is legally a child. He lived with his parents. Calling him an adult would be innacurate. Also, Zimmerman outweighed him by sixty pounds. He brought the gun. If you think about it, the person who was going to end up dead is pretty obvious in retrospect.

True, and a good reason to support proven crime-prevention measures like better education, better social safety nets, well-lit streets, and home alarm systems. However, not a good reason to excuse the shooting of an innocent person... we don't just get to say "oops, collateral damage, oh well"... there should have been an arrest that night.

If you look at the surveillance tape, it's clear that any injuries must be minor, or extremely unusual, since you can't see them at all. My guess is he did have a few scuff marks, and maybe a bloody nose, from the struggle before he killed Martin. Conjecture, however.

Yeah bleeding which is totally not visible on the police tape. Also of note, the police did not use gloves while handling Zimmerman, which they usually do if there's blood.

So... you're saying your racist? How exactly would that call go... I saw a black man, he must be guilty of something? Are you capable of self-examination here?

Ding ding ding! Here is the infographic version of the above comment: http://www.republicreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/ROI-1024x460.jpg

Next time just thank me by not sounding like an idiot in the future.

Love and kisses,

malilo

I really am not saying this to be a dick, but both you and a previous poster got this wrong. It's "cast aspersions on" not "cast dispersions on". http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/cast+aspersions+on

You are exactly correct. I was on a boating trip with several couples whom I didn't know and people started complaining about TSA. One poor woman ventured her opinion "but I think it's all ok because it keeps us safe"... I pointed out that I could kill plenty of people by wedging a bit of metal into a commuter track. She gave me a horrified look along with "Why would you even think of that?", but I think I made my point.

The problem is, they've already got a huge chunk of the country, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, convinced that we are under constant threat of attack. (It's the lizard brain, I guess). So once they put in place checkpoints EVERYWHERE (which yes, is their plan, the fascisty fucks), it will actually be a bit harder to find the evidence you and I have both noted (once everything is surveilled, it will be hard to argue there's been no attacks because no one is trying). Also, I suspect violence would actually go up, as more people joined resistance/anti-fascist/terrorist groups in response to a crackdown. But I'm just speculating.

5.1 million ly is not that far, actually (twice the distance to Andromeda). A galaxy at that distance would be in our local group, and it's redshift will be dominated by it's local motions, not the Hubble flow.

Ok, meanwhile in reality I would enjoy very much living in "socialist" Germany. You go enjoy your freedom to be poisoned to death by an unregulated food industry and have housing bubbles destroying the wealth of the middle class. We have many socialist institutions here and yet you seem to be alive and well to complain on the internet about it. I won't deny that they US is taking a troubling turn, but this has nothing to do with "socialism". Again, having government-sponsored healthcare, etc., does not require abdication of human or civil rights, unless you think it's your "right" not to obey the rule of law... which is another issue entirely.