HeyYou

We have folks burning down various places they don't like NOW. What makes you think passing some law is going to stop, or even slightly reduce it? Make ANY statement regarding sex, religion, government, or political ideals, and I can pretty much assure you someone is going to find it offensive.

This constant interference and nannying is leading to the infantilization of large numbers of people, this is happening at an alarming rate in the UK where people are actually calling the police if someone is rude to them on Twitter, comically a law from the 1980s compels police to investigate that complaint no matter how trivial, you actually get police knocking on a persons door because they called someone "ugly". @MajKrAzAm These special interest groups are part of the problem, they set out to ensure people don't get along, they have a vested interest in keeping the hate going, if people suddenly started getting along they'd be out of a job. Look at the language used when they talk about minorities, they always paint them as the victim, weak and unable to defend themselves. If you want to keep a people down the best way do to it is to make them feel weak and powerless, these special interest groups do exactly that and then portray themselves as the protectors and saviours of these minorities. Hate speech crimes plays into this because they antagonise the majority, this is exactly what these special interest groups want, it keeps the hate going and thus themselves relevant. Kids from an early age should be taught tolerance, you don't need to promote race relations or homosexulaity because if people of an early age are taught to be tolerant and accepting of others then the rest will follow. The problem is this will never happen with "Progressives" running the show, it won't happen because "Progressives" are the least tolerant of all involved, they'll preach it to others but rarely practice it themselves. Progressives are the problem? Hhhmmm....... Here in the states, it is the religious right that is the problem. (at least, when it comes to alternative lifestyles....) Whom are mostly republican.... Honestly, I think the politicians are the problem...... they feel this crying need to give the appearance of 'doing something'.... so, they do, even when they know it won't make one whit of difference, and in reality, will probably make things WORSE. But, they have something to point at, and claim "See, I DO care about you."

Discrimination is never going to leave the party. Not until some distant time in the future, when the human race is pretty much all the same, due to interbreeding of the various races. (not considering religion here..... that is another problem that will never be solved.) In this day and age, discrimination is still quite alive, and well. If a crime ocurs, and the folks involved are NOT of the same race, you can bet your bottom dollar that one side or the other is going to be screaming "HATE CRIME!!!". Seems to be the fashion of late. Personally, I think our society is going down the toilet BECAUSE OF government intervention in personal interactions. (be it social, economic, or work related.) You simply cannot legislate away behaviors.

There is always going to be those folks that "hate" other groups because of their race, religion, lifestyle, whathaveyou. There is no getting rid of it. I think giving those folks their platform to expound their beliefs would be the best thing for them. And others would then be free to point out the fallacies in their arguments in a public forum. Of course, there will also always be those that resort to violence to express their views...... or their disagreement with someone else's views..... Can't say that I am really surprised that various governments haven't yet discovered that you can NOT legislate away behavior. Just doesn't work that way.

This. I wholeheartedly concur. A crime is a crime, WHY someone committed it isn't really relevant.

A rail gun is designed to impart extremely high velocities to small objects in a terribly short period of time though. The 'rail gun' that would be used to accelerate the pods wouldn't be any more complex than an electric motor, and consume about the same amount of energy that the typical diesel/electric locomotive does. (granted, it will be higher, as it will be accelerating at a higher rate, but still, nowhere NEAR the scale of a rail gun.) I will agree that a tube a couple meters in diameter, and thousands of kilometers long, is going to be a positive NIGHTMARE to maintain if it needs to be kept at near vacuum. :D

A Skyline for a couple hundred?? Holy smokes. Those things are rarer than hens teeth here in the states. (considering they didn't start importing them until recently, shouldn't come as a big surprise though...) Congrats on the new toy. :) Pics??

Unfortunately, the US government has determined that lying IS considered "protected speech". Seems that the "stolen valor" laws that were proposed were shot down, as "unconstitutional". (stolen valor is claiming military awards, that you never actually recieved. Test case was a man that claimed to have won the medal of honor, when in reality, he had never even served in the military. Yes, a blatant, flat-out, lie.) Personally, attempting to classify it as "hate speech", seems like a dodge. Anything can be construed as hate speech with the correct manipulation. This is just another method used to limit your rights. Works pretty good too.

For a lot of the same reasons we have seen in this thread. No way on gods little green acre he can do it for the money he says. Given the engineering complications...... I think I am going to change sides here, and agree with the folks that flatly state it simply can't be done. Granted, we don't have a lot of details here.... he 'says' he isn't going to use an evacuated tube... how then does he propose to reach 4K MPH? and if he can only accelerate at .25g...... he will never reach that speed, even on a cross country trip, as he can only slow down at that rate as well.... half the trip will be spent accelerating, the other half, decelerating. (granted, I find that restriction somewhat difficult to understand, given that you can buy a friggin' car that accelerates at better than 1g......)

Nah, instead, we just hold people in prison with no trial, no likelihood of having one, and no hope at all for release. Not to mention those that we have already determined aren't really a threat, but, due to miles of red tape, we can't release them either. I put forth that free will has NOT increased either. In fact, it has been significantly curtailed by our government. They keep adding to the list of things we can't do, as we might offend someone..... The movement toward being more 'politically correct', has done more damage to our society than any war.

Considering this would be for long-distance transport, very few, or extremely gentle turns wouldn't be a problem. It IS doable.... if we throw enough money at it...... Trouble I see is, we can't build pipelines that don't leak now..... nor can we build a pipeline that doesn't break...... with the speeds the capsules would be running at, ANY failure, no matter how minor, would spell the death of everyone in any capsules in the vicinity. (and that 'vicinity' could reach for miles in both directions.) Should a failure occur where it runs under the ocean....... well, any one in those thousands of miles of pipe would be dead in very short order. There would be nothing left but a very thin smear of organic material. Which you would never find. I don't see this technology coming about any time soon......

What makes you think one democrat is going to be able to change the course of 30 plus years of redistricting? Nothing is going to change overnight, and if the republicans, which will still be pretty much in control, don't want changes made, there won't be any changes.....

Not really now there is a strong progressive movement that has arised from forcing unpopular legislation in the state of Texas. Now that Rick Perry is not running for governor next election there is a strong chance according to many republican strategists that the state may turn blue within the next few cycles. If Wendy Davis runs for governor and wins a lot legislation that was passed from anti-abortion restrictions to violence against women and equity pay for women will eventually be reversed. Texas has become the most extreme anti-women state in all of the states in the union and I really hope for this to be reversed soon. Not if she has a republican controlled congress under her. She will be in the same boat as Obama, and won't be able to get ANYTHING done.

Why are they paying tax? surely the answer isn't handouts but not taking money from them in the first place? Taking money from a worker, leaving him/her without enough to feed their family and then making that worker go cap in hand to the state to get some of it back cannot be right. Rather than worrying about what handouts people get they should address the reasons why people need handouts in the first place. Say what? Government treat the REAL problem? Seriously? Come on Jim, you are a smart guy, you should know better than to expect government to actually DO something. That would be counter productive toward building up their voter base.

A poll was done across the nation recently where about 35% of the nation considers Snowden a traitor. Just because It is not a majority of the nation doesn't exclude the fact that a lot of people believe Snowden has committed treason. I personally do not think he has committed treason but also do not think Snowden is a patriot or a hero. Snowden is a coward. A true patriot does not flee the country in fear to be held accountable for their actions. Also a true hero would not hide and seek asylum in countries that have less civil liberties than the U.S.A. undermining Snowden's original cause. If Snowden was a true hero or patriot he would have accepted what he has done and face any consequences including imprisonment or worst if he truly believes what he did was right. Ok, lets think about this a bit..... Our government does something that most folks don't really approve of, that has questionable constitutionality/legality. A man 'blows the whistle', and informs the public about what said government is doing. Now, do you seriously expect that the government is going to think this guy did the population a favor by blowing the lid off what they were doing? Would YOU trust the very people you were blowing the whistle on to give you a fair trial?? Basically, what this boils down to is: Do you think what the government was doing was "OK". I personally, do NOT think so. Obama is using "the ends justify the means" argument for compromising our civil liberties, in the EXACT same way that Bush used it to justify torture. (yes, waterboarding IS torture. Don't think so? Try it out once. I am quite sure you will change your mind.) So what would you expect him to do? Hang around, and get a trial he KNOWS will have a foregone conclusion? (guilty of whatever they decide to charge him with.) Flee to a country that has 'equal' civil liberties? (I would point out that those that fall in to this category would ship him right back here in a heartbeat. Kinda self-defeating there, don't ya think?) Or, go someplace that DOESN'T have an extradition treaty with the US, regardless of what other problems said country may have?

[offtopic] I don't want congress to pass immigration reform that basically equates to amnesty. [/offtopic] I don't think that is exactly what our government had in mind in the beginning, but, it is certainly the way it worked out..... We are beholden to "Government by the Corporations, for the Corporations, of the Corporations"..... The lobbyists control Washington, and the politicians are merely puppets on strings. I don't think I have seen an original thought come out of DC in decades.

It appears to me that actually SOLVING problems is beyond the governments purview. It isn't in their best interests to actually fix something..... they get more political capital from dancing around the subject, treating some of the symptoms, and giving the appearance of "doing something", in the full knowledge that whay they are doing won't make the slightest difference. Obamacare leaps immediately to mind.... and is exactly what I expect from our government. Stupidity piled on top of irresponsibility.

The assistance programs are pretty much designed in such a way that once on it, it is almost impossible to get off of it, unless you are VERY lucky. In todays economy (US), when a significant portion of the decent paying jobs have left the country, I am not really susprised that better than 25% of our population is on some form of assistance. (over 40% in some areas, and NOT just ghettos...) If you are recieving anything at all, if you make any sort of taxed income.... it immediately reduces your benefits, and not proportionately. Pass a certain threshold, and you no longer qualify for anything at all. Nevermind that you are now bringing in far less than what you were when on assistance... There is no short-term disability any more either. Hasn't been since some time in the 80's, or even earlier. (I know this, because I gave up walking for several months due to an injury) Since I was a single adult male, with no children at home, I didn't qualify for anything at all. I couldn't walk, I couldn't work, I couldn't even sit in a frigging chair...... but, so far as the government was concerned, I didn't qualify for anything..... which made life truly interesting there for a while...... Personally, I think the government has their priorities all wrong, but, that's nothing new......

They don't delete accounts, they can however, ban them..... If you don't want to be here, why not just refrain from ciming here?

Simply politicians giving something a different name, so they can continue their profiteering.

So then, if a country declares war against the US, we aren't really in a "war" until congress says so?

We are still officially (technically) at war with N. Korea. Snowden is a whistle blower, informing the american public of just what it is our government is doing to us. I don't see that as a 'bad' thing. Certainly not treasonous.

The Day After. Movie about post WWIII America. Reasonably accurate in its depiction of the after affects of a nuclear war. A boy and his dog. starring a very young Don Johnson. Red Dawn. Both versions, original with Patrick Swayze was pretty good. (for being made back in the 80's.....) Newer version is ok. Better special effects. :) (imagine that....)

Erm.... Apparently, some folks don't share your opinion..... Ok, so he is a homophobe. Which is in keeping with his religious views. Not like there aren't other public figures with distasteful (to some) personality traits...... And this is a reason to boycott his work?

Our government does that every day to try and make themselves look better. I can't count the number of times the definition of "unemployed" has changed....... Its the same for many other aspects of our lives as well.