It’s not “thousands” to file immigration applications; asylum applications are free, for example, and there are fee waivers for qualifying immigrants under the VAWA program/I-485 green card program/N-400.

It’s a tricky thing that nobody has really figured out. Immigration laws, and fairly strict ones, are necessary for the operation of a heavily socialized democracy. Despite that there are people who will, as you point out, have really good reasons for coming regardless. How to deal with them humanely while also…

Their crime is existing here, not existing where they originally came from.

It’s not modular, in the sense that you can’t take it apart, but pretty much all large naval ships are built in pieces and then welded together. More efficient that way apparently (or more cynically, easier to distribute pork around to multiple shipyards).

I don’t even own a car, but even I believe that drivers aren’t really the ones to take all the blame. Every day I see lots of pedestrians and cyclists with rather erratic behaviors that drivers cannot begin to predict e.g. walking with don’t walk signals up and the cars have the green light, cycling the wrong way,…

This Tundra did 1,000,000 miles in less than 10 years so it might be the fastest vehicle in the world!

Ford Tried with the Lincoln backwood and Mark Lt then found out that nobody bought them. Then in 2009 they decided to put the ford badges on the Lincoln pickup and sold a ton of them while Mexico still got the mark lt. I think that the top their pickups are just as nice on the inside as the 5 series /a6 /E class. the…

Exactly. I’m a fully loaded Toyota type of person. When I bought my current car (in 2005!) the price difference between mine and the Lexus version was minimal (maybe $43,000 to $45,000?) but the Toyota had a third seat and more bells and whistles. I like bells and whistles and extra seating and I don’t care if people…

As another 6'5" man, I say violent protest is needed. The last time I was on a plane, I saw them take an armrest off to accommodate a fat lady. I asked the flight attendant to remove the seat in front of me while she was at it. Got a dirty look

Im Not sure any car can live up to this commercial

I’ll go with this one for the worst of the worst C4s:

Really? 90% of people can charge their electric car at home? Many condos and apartment buildings don’t have chargers in the parkade, and many only come with street parking. My life doesn’t revolve around my car today, and it sure as heck won’t revolve around scheduling my day around charging it. Before you say “but…

Do I fall into the 90% chunk that an electric car would suit my driving needs most days? Yes. Am I interested in owning an electric car? Hell no.

Well Amtrak is subsidized about $1.37 Billion last year for 30 Million riders giving us $45 per passenger in subsidies last year alone. Over the 45 year life of Amtrak, it has been subsidized to the tune of roughly $50-60 Billion or $1.3B/year.

We all tend to compare the US with Europe when it comes to transportation. So... let’s compare a couple other numbers.

Total Size (sq km)
Europe (excluding Azerbaijan, Georgia and Russia): 6,192,545
United States (contiguous 48): 9,526,468

There’s an article on The Economist from 2010 or so called “American Railways: High-speed railroading”. It expands on this article pretty well.

1st/Reverse: I hate it when articles like this leave out the most important fact about cars (and trucks, etc., for that matter) are getting bigger: We’re getting bigger. With the car fast becoming the popular alternative to the dining room/dinner table, and the number of fast food restaurants springing up all over the…

I put lots of miles off road in Utah and Colorado as well as much of the flat lands in the middle of the country in a Ram 1500 and agree that full size trucks work well for the vast majority of trails. Occasionally you run into a spot that is tight, but it is not a problem like trying to park in a tight parking spot…

“The Nissan Titan and Armada are not off-road vehicles. Not really. The Titan’s too damn big, and the Armada has 20-inch wheels and a freaking fake vent on its front fender”