How you are wrong is because you are choosing to use respect as a verb. The definition Mr. Adams is using is for the noun respect. If you read the compact, it uses respect as a noun. Therefore, based on the context of usage, Mr. Adams has the correct interpretation.

I couldn't disagree more. Harry Potter is complete drivel, not worth a plug nickel. Ball games would be cheap at twice the price, and athletes should be making waaay more than they do today. The fact is, whatever you choose to buy is worthwhile because you CHOSE to give YOUR effort in a free exchange for someone else's. This is what allows you to read Ms. Rowlingsimaginitive tales, while I sit in the endzone at the Metrodome trying to cheer on my beloved (though struggling) Vikings.

Since you insist that I pay for the education of children not mine own, why can I not insist that it at least be spent on a quality product? Parents will have a higher probability of caring about their children than some government worker that gets paid regardless of the outcome.

The idea, that any potential change is harmful, is the beginning of the pure speculation.

And how much power does it generate on a calm day? The problem is that we have a load balanced system; there must be equal generation to consumption at all times. The only storage is the time it takes for the electron to leave the generator to get to the consumer. The only possibility for wind/solar to become viable would be if some new form of efficient energy storage can be found to mitigate their unreliability. This is the same reason the electric car has failed for the last century or so. It is more efficient to store energy in the form of hydrocarbons than electrons.

You mean like how we "knew" there were four elements composing all matter, or "knew" the earth was the center of the universe, or "knew" the sun revolved around the earth, or "knew" that matter cannot be created or destroyed, just imagine what we will "know" tomorrow.

Finally, in a country whose biggest health problem is food is so cheap & plentiful that up to half of the population is consuming too much and becoming overweight, any starvation can be directly tied to decisions of those going hungry.

Katrina was a natural disaster. Yet Wal-mart was able to get millions of dollars in relief supplies into the area before government could even move. The only sustained crisis of Katrina were for those who depended on government to solve their problem. Mississippi bore the full hit of Katrina, while New Orleans was dealt a glancing blow. Why do they not have the long term issues that plague New Orleans. The housing bubble was created when government forced banks to lower lending standards and at the same time assumed the risk (through Fannie and Freddie) of those loans. When something is all reward and no risk, money will always flow in that direction.

The funny thing is every crisis you listed was caused by, not solved by, government. Enron's energy trading did not cause the rolling blackouts in California. California's own governmental decisions to prevent the building of electrical infrastructure and the capping of consumer electricity rates caused the blackouts. The energy trading only resulted in a lot of people losing a ton of money on a scam. The BP spill was an accident that will be learned from (at least in the engineering world), however all of the procedures that BP (both before and after the accident) followed were approved by the federal government.

Are you looking for a guarantee? There is no such thing. All things in life are a matter of risk and reward. Your problem is that you don't want to be responsible for you own well being. If any of the private investments you listed fail (stock market, commodities, etc) the only one responsible is the investor, as they made a poor decision of what to do with their money. Have no doubt, SS will not survive much longer. If you are depending on others to provide for your needs in the future(SS & Meidcare), you've made an even riskier decision then all of the AIG, Enron and Worldcom investors combined.