Sure, their society will be less unique.

They'll also have proper nutrition, lower infant mortality, freedom from polio, and a whole lot of other things that the co-ordination of the modern world (brought about in part by money) has given us.

It's a change my family made. We like it.

Sure, the Stuff White People Like (TM) crowd won't be able to coo at them and say "aww, look at all those authentic minorities!" - but that's a small price to pay for giving these tribesmen a life without smallpox.

The issue here is exposure and maintenance. Modern buildings aren't damp, cold, dark stone structures like before. Every wall has insulation, wiring, air paths, serpentine seals, etc. Every join has to be sealed, insulated, drainage installed, and so on.

A lot of engineering goes into making a modern house that will shed water, be air-permeable yet not leak energy in the form of AC/heat, fall under code, etc. Add to this the massive liability costs of selling a house with such potential damage and you're talking huge, huge costs to finish and sell the structure.

Let a little mold or water get into the house before it's all built and it's usually cheaper to scrap it.

Some cars are cheaper to junk than to fix - and so are some houses.

At least he's providing employment for Illinois's former governors!

I have an even cheaper way to deal with alcoholics:

Ship 'em to Seattle!

White people are crazy!

Meat in curry sauce is a German obsession, not an American one ... how could this be "American"?

The Stuff White People Like crowd have suddenly discovered frugality - and they think they're the first to have ever been cheap.

My people have been doing it for millennia, out of necessity, not trendiness.

A minor nit:

Ukranians now like their country to be called "Ukraine" without the article, as the old form has some nasty Stalinist associations.

Sadly, the Chinese dissidents Google has helped get thrown into prison camps will not be eating nearly as well.

I wonder if they have a little red light that goes back and forth

I'm waiting for someone to blame George Bush and Halliburton

The problem with where Iive is that other people start discovering it.

One of those ideas that sounds cool, but is actually stupid.

The premise of TARP (although not necessarily the execution) is that some banks need to be kept afloat in the short term, because they provide the financial backing for all the companies that keep us employed. Starbucks does not run on operating revenue, it floats debt - and so does Boeing, and Yahoo, etc. These companies also needed cash to start up - cash that was provided through banks.

The idea is to provide a temporary cash injection into these banks to keep them alive long enough for them to repay the loans. It might not work because the banks suck, it might not work because they're crooked, but that's the idea.

Now, suppose you're a banker that makes a couple million a year - not at all unreasonable an assumption. If you're the guy that brought the financing together that allowed America to create Google, a couple million is certainly fair compensation. You suddenly find that your salary has been cut to $400k. What do you do?

You go to a competing, non-TARP bank that will pay you your old salary.

Result? All the top talent flees TARP banks, and they fail anyways - only this time they fail with $700B of our money!

Do you people like throwing your own money away? Because that's exactly what you're doing. We are now shareholders of these banks. We own them, and their employees are our employees. Guess what happens when you underpay your employees? At McD's, they'll give you the "special sauce" out of spite. Want some banker giving the economy the "special sauce"?

Blue staters and their SWPL attitudes.

Glad I don't live there anymore.

l'elk!: Sounds like you're the paranoid one, ready and willing to be offended at any moment.

The reason is biologically simple - the baseline human form is female, and masculine traits are caused by the release of hormones. Block those hormones, and those traits are less likely to be expressed.

I know, I know, you think its a patriarchal conspiracy. Biology was rigged this way by George Bush, right?