Please don't confuse my criticism as hatred. Being critical of the government is a proud part of the American tradition.

If anything (at the risk of sounding extra American), these threads remind me that the US is still the place to be if you want to build something different.

There's a positive side to how the US works too. The few things we really commit to, like building our military, we really are the best at. Also, the lax regulation does let new technologies like driverless cars get tested on open roads. Hurray? I think so.

Somewhere has to be the test-bed for new ideas. When they fail, they'll be expensive and stupid and maybe even stick around for a lot longer than they should (can we please, please, fix the shoes thing with the TSA?). But all together, we do a lot of cool stuff first that changes the world.