WRONG. You have made a social contract with the government when you become a citizen or are born in a country. Don't like our protection of immuno-compromised folks by mandating vaccines to instill herd immunity? Then GTFO, because it's not just YOUR body we're worried about. We're worried about the bodies of…

Well, I hope for the sake of sick individuals under other nurses' care that those nurses are vaccinated against the standard fare of illnesses. I would advocate that health care workers have even more of a responsibility and it ought to be mandatory to be protected if you're going to be working with the sick, just to…

Yes, I thought it was implied in your addressing of the "humor" in the situation of one arm of the government checking over the other arm's activity, but perhaps I was mistaken. If you weren't pointing out some type of irony, then I don't see the humor that you see, but that's cool. No need to get defensive, "Did I…

I don't see any contradiction at all. The government has a vested interest in promoting energy independence and increased energy efficiency. However, they also have to make sure that products sold in the country are safe, so maybe they can decide whether to research other methods to achieve the aforementioned goals.

Though I dislike a lot of art, people can be [i]bad[/i] artists. I'm sure a lot of those photographers, painters, and writers that don't fit a person's definition of "artist" still consider themselves to be so. As long as they're trying to express something, even through a bad iPhone photo, they're making art.

I don't see how allowing Big Government Fasco-Socialist-Robot Empire to control the internet is protecting real Americans. Only corporate ISPs know the best way to manage their networks and ensure that Americans only get to see the highest quality videos and images in the interwebs. If it weren't for their…

Oh, yeah, I'm expecting big-time backlash.

I'm guessing the university believes that someone of Paterno's status/ranking has a much higher standard of moral duty to uphold in the face of serious wrongdoing that he is privy to. I agree the other guy should also be fired, but I don't necessarily think the university board is completely wrong in their judgment.

True, this is called "contextualism" and one of my professors in undergrad taught a course in the philosophy of art, in which we read his book about the nature of interpretation. He brought up the Borges short story about a man who reproduces Don Quixote in its entirety, but where it has a completely different meaning…

While I think they should have relaxed their policies, if I went against my boss's demands and violated the policies of my place of employment (no matter how small the transgression), despite receiving prior warning, I'd lose my job, too. The only reason people are feeling extra bad in this case is because it involves…

It's Manvember! I'm actually doing the "Burns McGee" look for my school's charity drive in support of prostate cancer research.

Well, there are some fiscal conservatives/free-market types who argue that we could always support putting tolls on all major roads and essentially privatize the entire transport system, but I have a feeling that instead of big government running everything it would be big business; either way, we're still under the…

Yeah, but would the quality of life be the same? I love the East Coast, especially DC and Boston, but I also love the land and all that green space rural America provides. Deep inside, I know (from what I've read) that people in densely populated cities have much less of a carbon footprint per capita than people in…

Where we're going, we don't need roads!

Yeah, consider how often you pass by a road construction site and realize that it hasn't really changed much in 3 months and you always see a bunch of guys basically standing around doing nothing. They're all getting paid, so why hurry?

Totally envious. I live in Virginia right now and the anti-funding folks downstate refuse to secure any funding for the department of transportation, even though Northern Virginia generated the majority of the income for the rest of the state. As a state with a lot of business activity from some major corporations…

True, but Americans have some of the highest amounts of disposable income in the world and there's a large number of them; though with the recession, this isn't as much of the case. In other markets the margins may not be as great when selling a featurephone/mid-range smartphone. Add in all the disposable money spent…

Ha. This reminds me of the little house show I went to last night and seeing people right in front of the band texting their friends as the band played. In a basement crammed with 15-20 people it's so obvious and you gotta wonder why they couldn't wait to bust out their phones until after the band's set has finished.…

Why would it be stolen if the guy makes a lot of money selling his beats?

Well said. I'm not the biggest fan of electronic music, but I acknowledge that having an ear for catchy tunes and being able to churn out well-produced tracks is a legit form of song-writing.