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[Antonio the Sixth]

Positive, because it's extremely sensible compared to the American system.  Even if Norway is a little too soft, it's far, far more sane than a penal system allowing life imprisonment for 15-year-olds.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Governor Riley Keaton takes to the microphone

Lablr

Is this a new dating app for socialists?

[Antonio the Sixth]

His imaginative grasp of English

(on Windjammer)

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yes, the notion that routine genital mutilation of babies ought to be a crime is a bad joke. And in order to be free, the religious simply must cut off parts of babies' penises. Anything less would be tyranny. Un-Inksing-believable! Shall we bring back the castrati as well? Virgin sacrifice? Suttee? Divine rule of monarchs? As Nathan says, some must suffer to appease the religious.
If you want to alter your penis, I have no problem with that. It's yours, after all, and none of my business. All I'm asking if for other to leave alone the penises of babies. I don't think that's much to ask.

Not to interrupt your hysterical and frankly worrying straw-manning of the position on this--that it's the parents' business and that the benefit of the doubt in a society with freedom of religion should generally go to those who want to when possible avoid prosecuting aspects of religious practice as felonies instead of those whose preferred set of priorities for making policy on the subject makes the analogous provisions of the Volstead Act look like kum-ba-yah multiculturalism by comparison--that most sensible people hold, but do you genuinely consider circumcision a comparable violation to the other things that you're mentioning, or is it just that degree and scale have no meaning to you?

[Antonio the Sixth]

New Poll: Montana Senator by Public Policy Polling on 2014-07-18

Summary: D: 39%, R: 46%, I: 0%, U: 15%

Poll Source URL: Full Poll Details

[Antonio the Sixth]

I thought right wingers hated activist judges?

Anyway, this ruling is obviously a joke. It's not going to stand.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Aren't "normal" people the worst? They exist to do manual/office labor and other peon jobs, nothing more. That's their role in life. They aren't capable of doing anything that requires thought or intelligence. They are expendable. They exist solely to breed people who will grow up to be just like them.

I fear for them when automation obsoletes their existence.

I'm surprised you don't want the disabled to be euthanized, none the less that you hate "normal" people.

[Antonio the Sixth]

YES!

[Antonio the Sixth]

This ad is just not that different from one by AFP or Crossroads in style or substance.  It seems like Dems are utilizing the Guess the Party strategy in 2014 now.

[Antonio the Sixth]

McConnell has the same odds of being re-elected as Mark Warner does.

Meh.  At least it's better than Franken's.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I got accepted simply because I could play the organ.

I have indeed noticed that you are exceptional at playing the organ. You, as an Oxford student, will astutely notice that my usage of "organ" points towards your genitalia. Ungainly as it may be, your lateral thinking will also connect the dots and realize that my reference to your genitalia is symbolic - to your ego and self-worth. How your intellectual caliber has penetrated my multilayered facade to reveal the true intent of my barb! You have realized that I've accused your head of being firmly lodged inside of your excrement's last passage. An overwhelming urge froths in your subconscious - a wish to call me childish. Truly is this the pontification of a poo-poo head.

[Antonio the Sixth]

No, seriously guys, really great work. Posting numbers is a worthwhile use of bandwidth.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Jacobin's point about the inherently political nature of scientific funding- and how it distorts the research agenda in ways that don't serve the pursuit of knowledge or general welfare is actually a really good one, and one that thoughtful scientists and pro-science folks would do well to keep in mind.

But that doesn't mean that the scientific method hasn't obviously proved its mettle when it comes to pursuit-of-knowledge or general welfare-type things, especially when compared to other modes of inquiry.  And it certainly doesn't mean that quantum mechanics is just a construct of the patriarchy or some such Alan Sokal-type bullcrap, and a lot of what I hear from "all science is political" types tries to insinuate from Paragraph A to this much less sane Paragraph B.  Also, the anti-GMO movement is actually really stupid* and they are probably the biggest embarrassment to "my" side there is.

*not that the specific corporate practices of Monsanto aren't shady and ridiculous and worth protesting, but that's not what most of these people go on about, is it...

...

As far as Tyson and that article outing him as an anti-philosophy philistine... I'm in general sympathetic to the idea that even scientists need philosophy, and that the Big Questions do in fact matter.  So, yeah, on this subject Tyson is in the wrong.  But that specific article was a little too dead-white-guy triumphalist in its dismissal of philosophy as a living discipline, in a way that seems a wee bit hypocritical.  Asking people to get their knowledge just from the past doesn't sit so well with me.  Yes, I know, Decartes is more accessible than Quine is more accessible than whoever's doing stuff today.  But, in the same way, Mendel is more accessible than McClintock, is... you get the idea.  Just because a lot of the low-hanging fruit's been picked (we think), and basic education focuses on the older insights, doesn't mean Knowledge is Over.

And, yes, what most folks have said about the importance of science education/advocacy/cheerleading/whatever.  That's an important job, and if Tyson is more of a popularizer than a bleeding-edge researcher... well, every field needs its popularizers.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I know that the forum will appreciate this crime against cartography from The New Republic:

Are they even trying? Who would look at that map and think that it conveys any useful information?

Looks like the intern who made the map plotted the data including the dollar sign in front: at that point the map software interprets the number as a string instead of a number. Then the program keeps changing colour to resolve the problem of there being more labels than available colours in the swatch.

I redefined the data and improved the map if anyone cares.

That link doesn't work.

By the way:

[Antonio the Sixth]

For Schadenfreunde purposes.

Dammit. I knew Schatz would end up picking up votes

[Antonio the Sixth]

Inspired by dead0man's comments in FC. I don't think people who don't want any work should be forced to work. I don't find such people very inspiring or even good, but I think in their own way that they contribute by buying goods and services on whatever level. And if they're getting government payments I don't care because I like to live in a world where people aren't forced into squalor by collective spite. And in general anyone who looks at them and then cries about "their" tax dollars being wasted on someone else's basic well-being is an insufferable ninnyhammer. If they are surviving on a relative's generosity they're only a drain on said person, which is just unfortunate, but doesn't mean they're a drain on society.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Here's my guess, running mates are not the same but complementary and 3rds are purple not green. And I'll have scenarios here just as I did concerning my own thread which pit the actual running mates against each other.

Part I: 1952-1960

1952: Taft vs Kefauver

With Truman declining to run for a second term, the race becomes wide-open. And despite skepticism from party bosses, maverick Senator Estes Kefauver manages this time to make it. In an effort to appease these bosses, Kefauver selects squeaky-clean freshman Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois.

Meanwhile on the other end, conservatives in the GOP manage to unite in reaction to Truman and his foreign policies and nominate the aging Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, who picks the fairly liberal Governor of California, Earl Warren as a ticket-balancer.

Robert Taft (R-OH)/Earl Warren (R-CA): 282 EV, 49.2% PV
Estes Kefauver (D-TN)/ Adlai Stevenson (D-IL): 249 EV, 46.6% PV


Though the race is close, Taft does a much better job impressing upon the Northern elite and West Coast conservatives, which more than makes up for any gains in the Southwest by Kefauver

1956: Eisenhower vs Kefauver

Unfortunately, Taft dies in office...which leaves Warren in charge. But luckily for the conservative base, Warren declines to stay-on in favor of other political pursuits. Instead, war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower fills the void, and to appease the base and make a statement on civil rights, senior California Senator William Knowland is chosen.

Kefauver, bitter over his narrow loss, decides to run again. Trying to also make a statement on Civil Rights, he selects  Governor G. Mennen Williams of Michigan as running mate

Dwight Eisenhower (R-PA)/ William Knowland (R-CA): 391 EV, 57.8% PV
Estes Kefauver (D-TN)/ G. Mennen Williams (D-MI): 140 EV, 41.9% PV

Ultimately he ends up hardly better than Stevenson IRL, doing slightly better in the South and retaining Michigan.

1960: Johnson vs Rockefeller

Unfortunately, popular as Eisenhower was, he also ended up kicking the bucket. This left Knowland in charge, which did not sit well with the moderates and liberals of the Republican party. Ultimately the non-conservatives rallied around Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York. And after a heated primary and convention, Knowland was successfully replaced.

The Democrats also had a very scattered nomination process, between JFK, Humphrey, Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson of Texas, Smathers Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri, and Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois. But thanks to some wily tactics, Lyndon Johnson ended up taking the nomination.

Lyndon Johnson (D-TX)/ Hubert Humphrey (D-MN): 280 EV, 49.7% PV
Nelson Rockefeller (R-NY)/ Everett Dirksen (R-IL): 257 EV, 49.6% PV

Ultimately thanks to a very skilled campaign, Johnson beats Rockefeller. Rockefeller however does give him a run by managing to hold onto California, Oregon, and the Northeast.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I'm now in a relationship.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Texas

[Antonio the Sixth]

Please seek professional help immediately.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yes.

[Antonio the Sixth]

No, why would an atheist be offended by anti-religious satire?

[Antonio the Sixth]

Based on what I know about him from the past, he seems to have quite a different background than the average Atlas poster. I think that's part of the perceived issue, and something with which many on this forum have a hard time dealing.

Care to elaborate, or would that be breaking confidentiality or something?

I can see how that sort of thing might lead to misunderstandings and unwarranted HP votes in general... but man, that Elliot Rodger line was just so utterly inexcusable and beyond the pale no matter your background.

[Antonio the Sixth]

35% True Leftists (Atlasian Labor Party flavor)
30% Useless Right-Wing Stooges
7% Freakish Nazis
6% Useless Moderate Heroes
5% True Leftists (M.E.L.S. flavor)
5% Mega-Super-Ultra-Useless Jimintō-Except-Left-Leaning
4% Maybe-Less-Useless-But-Kookier Right-Wing Stooges
3% LOLPapandreou
5% Other

Seats:

TL (ALP) 144
U-RWS 77
FN 19
U-MH 16
TL (MELS) 14
MSUU-JELL 12
MLUBK-RWS 10
LP 8

You know. Give or take.

[Antonio the Sixth]

This would be the equivalent of someone like Rick Santorum endorsing Obama: It would be more about the endorser than the endorsed. Rather than moving votes, the effect would be that people would wonder if the mental state of the endorser was ok.