Speaking of the instructions, I think Leisure Time Products could have done a better job with them. They are pretty hard to follow in places, and that just adds time to the assembly process. But overall we are very happy with the product, and Noah just loves the slide!

I wonder if it has ever occurred to Mr. Walters that our own government's untenable policies where marijuana and other drugs are concerned are the very thing that makes these criminal organizations profitable? Eliminate the profit motive, Mr. Walters, and you eliminate the drug problem. All of it. The attendant violence and illegal immigration will also disappear. Let's have some serious discussion of Congressman Barney Frank's proposed legislation to elminate the penalties for marijuana possession. It's not enough, but at least it's a step in the right direction, and will start people having the right dialogue about this issue. Instead of talking about how to funnel more resources into this failed "war" and going after the "drug lords," let's spend some time talking about the lessons we learned in this country from Prohibition some seventy years ago: not only does Congress not have the authority to ban substances, doing so only creates a market for organized crime. You want to get rid of the thugs? Get rid of their market.

But please stop whining to me about the lengths that people will go to in order to profit from these substances that we've declared to be illegal. You will never stop them because greed is too powerful a force. Attempting to eliminate them through legislation is like trying to make planes fly by legislating against gravity. Stop wasting America's time and money prosecuting this pointless war, and start talking about real solutions.

If you are thinking about installing a solar water heater, here are a couple of considerations. First, be prepared to have a crew of 2-3 workmen walking through your house for an entire weekend or more. They will need access to your basement, attic, and possibly the walls in between. Second, the system will likely take up more space in your basement than your existing water heater. MSL's system, for example, includes an 80-gallon electric water heater that is much bigger than our previous gas water heater. In addition, the system uses a 10-gallon drain-back tank that normally can be set on top of the water heater, but depending on the ceiling height in your basement, it may need to be placed somewhere else adjacent to it. This was the case with our installation, but MSL constructed a shelf for it to sit on so we didn't lose any floor space. Another consideration is the PEX (polyethylene) tubing that is typically used for these installations. While it is a flexible tubing, it cannot be made to turn tight corners, so allow for extra plumbing space in the vicinity of the water heater.

Lastly, don't forget about the IRS's tax credit for alternative energy systems -- to qualify, they have to be installed by December 31, 2008. I am anxious to see how much this will cut our monthly energy bills, and how efficient it will be in the winter. Stay tuned to this space for updates.

[Update: August 2, 2008 -- I perhaps spoke too soon when I said that things went off without a hitch. As it turned out, there were a couple of issues. There was a small roof leak that they had to come back out to repair. Also, when the county inspector checked their work, the connections to the water heater had to be completely redone (in copper) and an expansion tank added (which is a recent addition to the code). They once again subcontracted this work with Finch plumbing, and they did a decent job on the rework (although my basement carpet is covered with solder slag which they didn't bother cleaning up). I am confident that this has been a learning experience for all parties involved, so these mistakes will not likely be repeated.]

It is only a matter of time before cars have internet access. They will either be sold with this option, or it will be available as an after-market add-on. It is a certainty. Once this happens, and the vast majority of cars on the road have it, inevitably there will be a whole series of distributed software applications that act to tie all the cars together. Something like instant messenger for cars, only these messages will also contain useful information for the driver beyond the normal inane conversations. Traffic information like debris in the road, or emergency vehicles approaching from the rear, could be passed from car to car, traveling in both directions on any given stretch of road, giving the driver insight into driving conditions both in front of him and behind him.

Once this is well-established, it is not hard to see that the next logical step will be notifying motorists of speed traps. The information will be much more sophisticated than simply flashing one's headlights at oncoming traffic, however. These packets of data could include precise GPS coordinates, for instance, reconnaisance photos of the area (because no car with internet access will be without a hood-mounted or dashboard-mounted webcam), as well as brief notes describing the trap. With all of that information available to a driver, who needs radar detectors anymore? The effect will be, on a macro scale, that traffic will naturally slow around the location of a cop, and speed up again once the threat of a ticket has passed. Much the same way it works now, only infinitely more efficient. So efficient, in fact, that it is likely that no cop will ever write a speeding ticket again.

You heard it here first, folks. Tell your friends. The days of speeding tickets are numbered.

The timing of the Supreme Court's decision this week is fortuitous, because it serves to underscore the crucial point of Phase III, and that is that keeping and bearing arms is in individual right because personal safety is an individual responsibility. A person's unalienable right to self-defense (using whatever arms they should happen to choose), as acknowledged by the Second Amendment, may be voluntarily delegated to others, however, it is important that every citizen understand that the responsibility for their own safety and security is not automatically assumed by any other party.

If you want to be safe walking down the street, you must take the proper precautions. If you want your home to be safe from invasion you must take steps to ensure that security. If you want your family and loved ones to be safe from harm, you must be prepared to defend them in any situation. These points will be hammered home to everyone throughout Phases I and II, but they cannot be emphasized enough. Our population has become not only complacent, allowing the responsibility for their safety to be assumed by others (police), but taught to be afraid of the very means they must be use to defend themselves and their liberties (guns).

When Mel Gibson's movie The Patriot was released in 2000, there was some furor in the press over the scenes depicting Gibson's young children in the movie using their muskets to fight the British Army. The argument being that this is not the proper message to be sending to our children. That we, as a society, do not want our kids to be learning at an early age how to handle and use weaponry. Futhermore, it was hard for some to believe that these scenes were based on reality -- they cannot fathom a world in which 10-year-olds were capable marksmen, taught to not only accurately place a shot in the center of mass of their enemies, but also taught to safely handle their weapons to prevent the accidental injury or death of their kin. How could children be this responsible? Children are capable of many amazing things when we set our expectations of them sufficiently high. And, most importantly, responsible children grow into responsible adults.

It is this defect that education campaigns during Phases I and II will strive to correct -- multiple generations of people who were never taught to use or respect guns, so they've grown into adults who fear guns, or disrespect their destructive power. These hoplophobes have convinced everyone else that guns are dangerous and unnecessary, when the exact opposite is true, and once this brainwashing has been reversed in a large enough number of people, the task of dismantling the government's defense infrastructure will not seem as daunting.

During Phase III, all property of the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security will be auctioned off to the highest bidder. Private protection agencies will have been gearing up for Phase III for forty years at this point. They will be in best position to bid on all of armaments and other hardware of the Armed Forces and other federal law enforcement agencies. All of it will be gradually sold and the responsibilities for security, both personal security and that of our borders, will be gradually transitioned to the private sector during this phase.

Revolution complete - 2076

Americans will, for the first time in centuries, celebrate their freedom from oppressive government during our nation's tricentennial. The federal government will no longer exist and the process can be expected to repeat for state and local governments, as needed.

So, now the residents of the District of Columbia can once again have an efficient means of protection in their homes again. It will be interesting to see if repealing the handgun ban in the District has any effect on crime statistics. One would expect home invasions, for instance, to drop considerably. The next step will be to remove any impediments to the citizens carrying their weapons with them, thereby reducing crime rates overall.

Thank you SCOTUS, for acknowledging a right that all of us already had!

More specifically, parents have failed in their duty to their children to teach them right from wrong. Stephanie Woods clearly does not grasp the concept, and she is probably not alone among members of her generation. What happens to this nation in ten years, or twenty years, when Stephanie Woods is in a position of authority? Or worse, is a parent herself, and raises another generation with even less respect for the rights of other people? One of the YouTube commenters said that these two girls should be sterilized. I can't say that I disagree.

Public property is a paradox. How can something be owned simultaneously by everyone and no one? In order to avoid this logical inconsistency, as well as the Tragedy of the Commons, and the staggering costs of the endless bureaucracies needed to administer it, public property must be eliminated.

During this phase, all land and property currently "owned" by the federal government will be auctioned off to the highest bidder (or returned to its rightful owner). This includes all interstate highways, Post Offices, National Parks, and all land currently held by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the western States. It also includes federal territories such as Guam, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. It does not include military bases and the District of Columbia - these will be sold at auction in Phase III.

All public schools (from kindergarten to universities) receiving federal funding will be closed, dismantled and/or sold at auction during this phase. This includes the Department of Education and all of its employees. The People will once again have to take direct responsibility for the education of themselves and their children.

Private companies will be the most likely customer to buy schools. In most cases, schools will be converted in place to private schools, with the free market determining the cost of tuition. Teachers currently employed by the government-run schools that meet the minimum requirements of the private schools will likely not lose their jobs.

Post offices will most likely be sold to private delivery companies (FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc.), but may be sold to anyone with the means to purchase them.

National parks could be sold to private environmental organizations whose focus is conservation, such as the World Wildlife Fund or the Sierra Club. Admission to these parks would no longer be free, but any fees charged for maintenance and upkeep would be subject to free market forces (and therefore kept low) and could also be subsidized by the charitable donations already collected by these organizations.

BLM land will be given, free of charge, to any rancher/farmer who can show compelling evidence to a jury that their continuous use and stewardship of a given parcel of land should reasonably confer ownership. All other land will be auctioned to the highest bidder, while residents of all Federal Territories will be given their independence and granted full rights and title to their homelands.

But I must confess that I like it too, and it's a very well executed game. The graphics are extremely well done, the story that guides you throughout is imaginative and well-written, and the game play itself is very good. The cars handle in a realistic way (for the most part) and the controls are intuitive.

I especially like the fact that certain areas of the game become unlocked after you achieve certain milestones and that results in barricades with "Road Closed" signs disappearing from roads in the game, allowing you to explore new areas of the map. I also like that time progresses as you go through phases of the game, so sometimes you are driving during the day, and sometimes at night. Overall it's a great game and I would strongly recommend it, even if you don't have kids!