Palindromedary ~ Very informative! Thanks for that link! I often wonder what would happen if when my teacher in 3rd grade caught me chewing gum in class and asked, "Did you bring enough for everybody?" And I replied, "Yep! I sure did!," and got up and started handing out gum to all the other kids and finally handed the teacher the last piece, "And this ones for you, Teacher." I wonder if that would have shut her up or got me sent to the Principal's office? In either event, she would think twice about asking that stupid question again in the future.

Back to drones. Palindromedary you are always very pessimistic about these things. Look on the bright side. Iran has the capability of hitting Tel Aviv anonymously--yet, they haven't. Hezbollah had the opportunity to take out an Israeli nuclear reactor--yet, they didn't. The Taliban has the capability to take out an American city with a hand held nano nuclear device--yet it hasn't happened. All these facts show that "our" enemies--unlike the USA--may actually value life--even the lives of their enemies--more than we do. After all, are we not the only ones who use new weapon technology immediately after we perfect it just to see how many people we can kill? How many other countries use drones to kill people? How many other countries have used nuclear weapons on people? Far too often we project our own evil on others without cause. Then we become fearful of our own evil. I think there is a name for that--Bad Karma :-0

I think that most of the time the only thing we have to fear is ourselves. That is why the only behaviors we should be worrying about are our own. Funny thing about Karma--you always have complete control over it and no one to blame but yourself when you upset it.

That drone flown by the nuclear reactor was meant as a demonstration only. A ha ha look at what we can do, just like the Chinese surface to air missile that took out a US satellite a couple of years ago. No one practices a surprise attack on location. In addition, Hezbollah knows better than to attack a nuclear reactor, it would poison the region for everyone there as well as pose a huge hazard for people all over the middle east, Europe, Africa and Russia with the radioactive cloud that would result depending on which way the air was blowing. Hezbollah's reputation as the good guy over there would be lost in nanoseconds with such a catastrophic blunder. In addition, Israel would then have the green light to immediately make a big crater out of Tehran. The only group that really stands anything to gain from taking out an Israeli nuclear reactor is Israel.

Using a drone to take out Tel Aviv is another story altogether. So is using drones to take out people in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, or anywhere else in Israel. That may be a serious real threat. The best indicator of that eventuality is the fact that it hasn't happened yet. Let us all hope it stays that way. Time will tell. Let's work on keeping our Karma happy ;-)

On a side note, Maxim has officially ranked 'current or recently employed NSA officials' to be #1 on the list of 'By Far the Most Hilarious Type of Stranger to Accidently Run Into at a Bar and Buy A Drink For!" For a measley couple of bucks, one can get HOURS of hysterical life altering wows and omg's as the two of you whisk off into the vast non-finite realm of 'Stranger Than Fiction'! Giving up this coveted distinguishment while taking a shockingly distant 2nd place this year, phsychologists still insist, "Just keep couphing up those beers, Americans, you never know who you'll run into next!"

ckrob ~ Put the tactical nuke inside the drone and let it blow itself up along with the target. You could have USA written all over the drone and no one would know where it came from because it would be completely disintegrated. Good point!

Dave in V -- From WWII until Reagan, the economy of the US was the strongest the world has ever seen. If you are worried about the size of government, a ruling elite is really small and the antithesis of the US constitution.

The problem with the equation is that you are trying to 'solve' one problem by creating another problem (borrowed money, debt). The Federal Government has no business loaning money. They further have no business borrowing money to pay for anything. One of the primary duties of Congress is budgeting and paying for the actions of the Government (as outlined in the Consitution). Since the introduction of the 16th amendment (Income Tax) they have progressively gotten out of control on this point. Since the introduction of the payroll tax (around WWII) this problem, along with the governement, has grown exponentially and the people have become serfs to the power elites in Washington.

Thom,

I am sorry for the loss of your friends.

Please, though, in this time of loss, it is best not to politicize it- it is one thing to look at Egypt and see the Military shooting the people, or for Obama to order a drone strike, those are political, despotic deaths.

In your explanation of the free market- you deny knowledge gained over time by the free market. For example, if today, businesses could open up that catered only to certain demographics- the free market has now preferred businesses that do not discriminate and those that do will only have marginal or limited market patronage. Similarly- if businesses offer less to their employees than other competitors provide, they will lose good employees. The idea that if we lose an amendment to the constitution, lunch counters will entirely go "lily white" is false. The idea that we would have "never" gotten here by now, if not sooner, without the wanton slaughter of 600,000 people is absurd considering other nations peacefully resolved their market conflict of slavery.

So when you say libertarianism killed your friends- you really make an error- because either 1) the market is not aware by market test, which environments are not safe enough, or 2) it is aware/became aware and your friends did not choose to work in safer work environments- or chose to work in less safe ones- regardless the market provided alternatives 3) it may be that a particular sector of the market is not "safe"- which is hard to believe given the totality of it- but certainly nothing is without risk, and there are other occupations that provide safer environments at similar salaries.

Businesses that do not take care of their employees, lose them. Back in the day, when you could work for 40 years and get a pension, businesses cared about their employees, making more thoughtful hiring choices, including their health because the cost to hire was greater than it is today.

As a voluntarist who believes in the NAP, people make choices- together. The employer does not "force" signing the employment contract. There are competitors within sectors and you could choose other occupations- and many people move into 2nd careers in their lifetime because it is competitively to their advantage to do so.

If you have decided that libertarians are insensitive and responsible for death, I am sorry for your loss, but only negligence which can be sued for is your recourse- and libertarians do support life, liberty and property- so proving harm and being compensated for it is within the NAP- thus supported by libertarians.

It would be a mistake to see the government that purchased the weapons killing Iraqis, Afghanis, Egyptians and countless others, by the hundreds, and even thousands, and in history- millions-as the one you can trust with a scalpel (Obamacare) or the one you can trust with regulations on business- usually written by the too-big-to-fails themselves who will never pay for their crimes because the govt protects them.

Lets have small businesses, far more sensitive to the free market pressures of healthy work environments, competing and lowering prices- not govt cartel- the best ones survive or are replaced by competitors with better technology, lower prices, greater efficiency- if only the government did not exist to screw it up.

Again, as to the human loss- I am not without sympathy. If you must blame someone- blame the govt which discorages the free market and cartelized bad business practice, while protecting it from lawsuit.

Guess what! The US is not the only ones with drones. Many other countries and even organizations like Hezbollah now have them. They even have a 5.5 pound drone that can easily be launched by one man and it is accurate and deadly. They even flew one towards an Israeli nuclear reactor just to see how close they can get. Iran has the capability of flying drones to Israel...and much further.

Now everyone has drones...ones that are weaponized. The pandora's box has been opened and drone warfare may be soon upon us. Those Japanese biological weapon balloons that they launched against us during WWII may not have been very effective but a barrage of drones (hard to shoot down because of their size) could easily carry miniaturized nukes. Yes, and they have those too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=543EU5F14uE

I'm leaning towards the peace prize. Do you suppose we could start a petition to free him?

chuckle8 ~ What a lovely example. It makes perfect sense to me. Unfortunately, it is an example of fantasy. We aren't borrowing any money to invest in education in this Nation!! What planet are you from, anyway?

We aren't incurring debt on this planet from sending students to college, you see, Earthlings in the United States are currently debating how much interest they should charge on student loans. They are PROFITING not INVESTING!! The two are DIFFERENT!!There are no current National loans related to education. Education is a scam that is run by domestic loan sharks that turns a good profit at the expense of our next generation and the good of our nation. Good thing too! Because there are no jobs that demand an education left. "Would you like fries with that order, Sir?" does not require a four year term in an university. Sorry my friend but I don't buy your thesis. RTI 6X on student loans? Do the graduates know this? I know some that are still paying off their loans 10 years after graduation. 6X RTI? Really??? Is this monthly, annually, or in a lifetime? How has this incredible windfall not balanced our budget? You are doing a great job at supporting your claims; but a piss poor job at explaining reality. Maybe one of these 6X RTI students would care to write a comment on just how this happened? I am more than curious--and confused? Last I looked, most victims of student loan extortion were trapped working two menial labor jobs or more a day to pay down their debt and support themselves. Their education went to waste as their careers went overseas.

Quote chuckle8:Some of these cases based on history. FDR tried to balance the budget in 1936 and within a few months he woke up to what a bad idea it was; unemployment start rising again. Another example, Clinton balanced the budget and 1 year later the stock market collapsed.

Chuckle8 ~ Either you are intentionally making up history; or, did you just accidentally mixed these facts up? The Stock market crash of 1929 made it impossible for FDR to balance anything without raising revenue--which he did magnificently. When he did unemployment ceased to exist. A booming Stock market helped Clinton balance the budget during his term. However, the manufacturing industry which Clinton destroyed made balancing the budget after his terms impossible.

Your accounts of history make a good bedtime story for someone from another planet but do little to change my opinion. To restore prosperity to this Nation we must reestablish our revenue generating system, we must eliminate our deficit, and above all, we must pay our debt. There is no other way; and, inventing history while making up flakey theoretical voodoo nonsense about the economy is not going to do anyone any good--especially your own credibility.

http://www.uaw.org/articles/must-see-video

Sounds great, in fact FATCA might turn out to be the best economic stimulus since the New Deal.

I've always been perplexed as to why someone receiving let's say two million per year in unearned income would be against at least a 50% tax rate. Considering that after $75,000 per year people's day-to-day happiness no longer improves, I would say that even the one million left after tax would cause more stress than it's worth.

As a kid who always had a paper route I recall that the lowest income families always tipped me more than the high income ones. In fact I remember the folks with more money than brains always seemed to be at the local bar.....maybe medicating their stress and unhappiness....John Boehner!!!