The fail safes for nuclear bombs are far more extensive and effective than birth control.

That would be an awesome excuse... if it weren't for the fact that Germany pulled off the exact same thing 25 years earlier.

It's libel, not liable. Libel is making false and damaging statements. If someone is liable, that means they are responsible.

"Other than PR and ego"

He's already flown across the English Channel, which is wider than the Grand Canyon.

Maybe they used python. [xkcd.com]

Cigarettes didn't for a while either.

"We prefer its older American sibling..."

I'm pretty sure that bin Laden was hiding in Tora Bora in 2001. He escaped, and the complex wasn't as complicated as we thought it was, but last time I checked, most people were pretty certain that he was there.

It seems more like he's trying to describe how hard it is to keep track of everything, not like he is saying that it's a game. Especially when you look at in context. The source article is discussing how overworked air traffic controllers are. Immediately after that it says, "I told them to get somebody else to help…

First, I think you mean Osama. See how easy it is to make a mistake? Also, it seems reasonable that a spokesman would not know exact details, because he was not there. It would be one thing if the SEAL who killed bin Laden got confused when asked for small details, but when you point out that different spokesmen, none…

Actually, the story I've heard has been remarkably consistent. Although, I suppose that is what happens when you get your news from news organisations that actually bother to double check their facts, like the New York Times and the BBC. For example, I never heard that we had the full cooperation of the Pakistani…

I don't know that much about molten salt reactors, but can't they produce hydrofluoric acid when in contact with moisture, which could happen if the reactor were hit with a tsunami, like in Japan? Also, doesn't it require reprocessing, which tends to be pretty shaky, politically speaking?

These numbers mean nothing without comparisons. You are basically saying, "THIS GENERATION HAS IGNORANT PEOPLE SO IT IS WORSE THAN ALL OTHERS," without proving that earlier generations weren't this bad.

Fine, "the meaning of a word, phrase, sentence, or text" [wordnetweb.princeton.edu]

"Of or relating to semantics or the meanings of words."

Your argument was semantic, because it was a trivial argument about the meaning of words that distracted from the main issue, which is whether piracy is morally wrong, and as far as I know, that is what semantic means.

You are making a semantic argument. The argument is about whether or not it is ok. However, since you brought the argument to semantics, the definition of "steal" from Merriam-Webster is "to take or appropriate without right or leave and with intent to keep or make use of wrongfully," which doesn't specify depriving…

Explain please.

This was at the National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest. I don't think any of the machines used a real plant, just because of the fact that they are run many times.