I live in NJ.  Christie is a good govenor for NJ, best we've had in a long while, BUT he is not a conservative in any meaningful sense and is anti-gun.   If he were to be the Republican nominee for President, I would vote for him over any Democrat, but he would not be my choice in any primary race, and I hope someone more conservative becomes the Republican nominee

#2 - It fits everything else we know about the president

Based on reporting I read yesterday, his punting was not very good last year, and the team simply wanted to improve their punting at an initially lower cost, market capitalism at its finest, and had nothing to view with the punter's views on gay rights and SSM. 

Maybe it also had something to do with whether or not they charged a VAT tax on the water.  This lets them keep statistics on how much tax they missed from which countries.

13 of 13, and the questions are far too easy.  A couple of them are heavily politiczed as well which I don't appreciate.

I am in camp 2.  There was small warming, about 0.8 degrees C over the last 150 years.   Likely not caused by CO2.  Recent science seems to show that fear mongers were wrong.  Climate always changes, and man caused effects mostly due to urban heating and land use changes, not CO2.   Recent calibrations of climate sensitivity support range between 0.5 and 1.5 C, not the larger 3-8 C that might need adapation, so we need to do nothing, except maybe increase CO2 production, if Russian predictions of larger scale cooling over next 150 years pan out.

Opinion: In general, "Global Warming"  is a scare developed for the purpose of justifying increasing government control of everything.  There was some science indicating some warming might be occuring, and it was convenient to magnify it.

I enjoyed a good sea-story novel, quite a lot, so would recommend C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower series of novels (12 in all).  Written in mid 20th century about British Navel officer in Napoleonic era were some of best I have read.   He wrote quite a few other novels, also seemingly quite good.

I read almost all of what everyone is mentioning here, but my personal favorite was Childhoods End by Arthur C. Clarke as noted by RushBabe49 earlier.

Christie didn't morph, he has always been a moderate, RINO type.  He defeated the conservatives in the Republican primary here before being elected governor.  Has been pretty good as governor, but too liberal for me as President.

Currently, would favor Jindal, think Cruz is too new on the scene, and have a problem with Rubio's immigration policy.   Rand's libertarianism is fine, but I think he is too isolationist, and I think we do have to worry about that.  In the absence of US pressure, someone else will become the lead dog, likely China, and we would not like the results.

Of course, I will vote for any of these who become the nominee because whoever it is will be lightyears ahead of any Democrat, and elections really really matter.  Not voting for purity is a fools game.

 ParisParamus - 

 "... But excitement of chairs as props, or towers of paper doesn't convey anything to anyone who doesn't already get it."

But it does get across to the typical citizen who will never read a detailed discussion, just go to sleep, that something is wrong.   The problem with the messaging you suggest is that noone will read or listen to it, it is to them supremelyboring and onlywhen it impacts their cash supply in a direct enough linkl that they can see it will they react.   This has a chance, but I am afraid what you suggest will never work.   I wish it would, but it hasn't for the last 5o years at least.    

Both,

Heinlein's Puppet masters was my favorite by him,

Asimov's Laws of Robotics, led to the greatest series of stories/novels about Robots ever developed.

Of Heinlein's later works, I liked Stranger in a Strange land, but I think he got a bit too raunchy in later works

When I think about these two, however, I also have to throw in Arthur C. Clarke, who was a technology visionary who first thought about communication satellites among other concepts, and whose novel Childhoods end had the greatest effect on me of any sicence fiction novel.

One reason that is not economic.   Less (A lotless) government spending at least implies smaller federal government, and that is what we really need.    The debt will come down, if we can just make the size of government about 30% of what it is now, but noone is really trying for this, it goes against all the incentives for people who make their living spending other peoples money

With this list:

• Marco Rubio - Possible don't like his immigration position
• Paul Ryan - House members don't win, good Wonk but boring
• Chris Christie - Good governor, NOT a conservative, fail
• Jeb Bush - Still too many Bushes, maybe next generation?
• Scott Walker - Possible, likely too unknown
• Bobby Jindal - My first choice, conservative, and a success
• Rick Santorum - Also ran from before, nothing new
• Rand Paul - Maybe, if he avoids the extremes of his father
• Mike Huckabee - A populist, big-government type, disqualifying in my view
• Bob McDonnell -- Not conservative enough likely too boring
• John Thune - Too boring
• Kelly Ayotte - Good possibility, I like her
• Susana Martinez - Too unknown
• Rick Perry - He couldn't speak last time, why did that change?  Boring

So I guess my three top are Rubio, Jindal, Ayotte, closely followed by Rand Paul, if I continue to be able to support his positions, rest should just go away for this cycle.

I lived there most of my life, but when my job moved in 2001, I did to0, to NJ, and found I liked the East Coast as much or more.  Now in process of moving to NH, which economically takes a while to figure out, but I like it there better than anywhere I have lived in my life.  I admit I am weird in that I like snow and cold, and hate heat and humidity and one of my favorite recreational things is running a snow thrower.  Maybe this strangeness came from spending my middle and high school years living at Lake Tahoe in the Sierras, where snow is measured in feet or yards, not inches.   Anyway, I have  a daughter living there, but for myself, I have no desire to return, though the state is beautiful, it is too much hassel with too many liberals and still costs too muich to return

He can make public appearances and help teach why we need a change.  Following a conservative victory, I suspect he could serve in a variety of policy roles should he wish to.

You can download USGS topographic maps for a given area for free, or I think still visit a USGS map room if you are where one is, and get paper for a nominal fee.   These are the best available at the highest resolution (Too high sometimes for some purposes in the 7.5' series, but are also available in larger sections at less resolution.  These are what I have always used when planning a hike in a new area for the last 40 years, and are really  great.