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[RR1997]

Lincoln (sane)

[GaussLaw]

GRAVIS

[traininthedistance]

Honestly, this map isn't much different than if we just had it as "whites" in general.

Whites with a college degree may be somewhat more Democratic than whites without one, but income disparities make it pretty close to even.

[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.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Russia's right to do what they please in their sperhe of influence.

Russia has no such right. "Sphere of influence" is an utterly disgusting concept that belongs in the dustbin of history.

[NHLiberal]

Pretty good for the kind of soap opera that it was.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

He would be the best GOP nominee for 2016 and win in many scenarios

[GaussLaw]

I honestly could not think a campaign could be run worse than Charlie Crist, but Ed FitzGerald takes the cake. If Kasich breaks 55%, I bet he might change his tune on the presidency.

[ElectionsGuy]

Barry Goldwater: the GOP can't "flip" and support desegregation

Someone needs to learn history.

GOPers were massively in favor of Civil Rights in the '50s and early '60s.

Goldwater tried to flip the party against it and racists gradually moved to the GOP since.

[TDAS04]

That's disgusting, the church should apologize. But I think the worst people here are the ones who 'complained' about the funeral of a gay person.

[Flake]

I hope that most people would not object to the use of the term "bigots" to describe these parishioners, or claim that these hateful people are fine because they're "just adhering to their deeply-held religious beliefs".

[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:

[RR1997]

Anything in that "Alternate US States" thread.

[Enderman]

Character Name: Tim "Raj" Scott
Area: Hensley
Political Party:Republican Party
Religion: Hinduism, but not very religious.
Occupation: Doctor at Jameson General
Description: Tim R. Scott is 50% East Indian and 50% white. He is a doctor at Jameson General. He is a relatively affluent person, with a salary of about $250k a year. Dr. Scott is very popular among the citizens of Henlsey, and is known for being a very nice and friendly person. He considers himself to be a moderate conservative, and is very active in local politics. Dr.Scott is also thinking of running for mayor of Hensley. He is married with 3 children.

[GaussLaw]

Name: Katherine "Katy" Wilson Twist (has a fiancee)
Age: 37
Area: Hensley
Party: Republican
Ideology: Center-Right
Religion: Non-Denominational Christian
Occupation: Director of the Department of Housing and Urban Improvement of Hensley

Bio:

Born to a modest middle class family, the daughter of a 5th generation-family of labor workers, Katy was the second child of James and Marie Twist. Katy and her brother, Jimmy. They both fantasized about doing various things, such as dance, track and field, karate, and even politics. As they grew up, Jimmy found his dream in being in the Military, meanwhile Katy decided on charity work for her church. She got really into it and, after getting great grades and hard studying, she got herself into the college in Hensley. After receiving a Master's degree in Civil Reform, five years later she found herself interning for Hensley's Department of Housing and Urban Improvement. It was there when she learned of politics and she decided to become actually actively involved. For the past eleven years she barely voted, or at least voted in third party because she didn't want to affect politics. As her view of politics grew, so did her relationship. She already was best friends with a person she met in college by the name of Dane Eckeman, but she never considered him as something more. (she friend-zoned him, that's what I mean) Anyways they started dating about two years into the interning. Then Katy got a job as the Secretary to the Deputy Director of the Housing and Urban Improvement. Then things got complicated when the Deputy Director died of a heart attack and the Director appointed Katy to the Deputy Director, then all of a sudden the Director died in a car crash. So now Katy is the Director of the Department of Housing and Urban Improvement, as she has for about five years. Then a year previous Dane and Katy became fiancees, but they are planning a lot for their future. Katy has very few enemies but has a lot of connections. Popular with labor unions, she balances her social moderateness with her economic conservatism.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

http://www.tentmaker.org/articles/hell_test.html

This is a lengthy but very interesting article I read about hell. 

It certainly made me rethink some of my beliefs theologically, but I would like to see a second opinion.

Many of these arguments mirror those of universalists on this forum, but they go into much more depth.

Several of the key arguments against hell in this are:
1. the pagan origin of the ideas of hell + most original Christians being universalists, and pagans adding the part about eternal hellfire
2. The original Greek/Hebrew manuscripts did not contain the concept of hell, but the Latin translation mistakenly does, from which the 1st believers in hell derived the doctrine.
3. When translated to English, a lot of words were mistranslated to 'hell'. 

There are a whole bunch of other arguments against hell, but many of them are non-scriptural and just about what a loving God would do (very common ones). 

I am curious what some of the more conservative Christians on here (DC Al Fine, JCL for instance) think of those three arguments and the article in general.

One problem I have with the mistranslation argument is that regardless of what name we give for "hell", if Jesus was talking about a place to dread in which you'd be better off plucking your eye out, that's not a good place to be!  It doesn't matter whether that's sheol, gehenna, hell, or Hades.  So a real mistranslation would have to be of the whole parable, not just 1 word about hell.   I would like to see this addressed in more detail what the alternate meaning of the teachings about cutting your arm off/plucking out your eye could mean if it didn't mean punishment after death.

Just some stuff to chew over at the very least........

[Хahar 🤔]

You and I might just have very different tastes in superhero movies in general. I find the relentless grimness of the recent DC movies unsavory, not only as applied to Superman but in terms of the current ascendancy of Batman and his attendant concepts as well. Please don't misconstrue this for a distaste for serious themes; it's the combination (conflation, even!) of serious themes with cynicism and putative aesthetic 'realism' that I can't stand.

[Mr. Morden]

Man, the color scheme on that last map is awful.

[IceSpear]

These baby penguins are also not sure that Hillary Clinton would make a good president:

http://www.clickhole.com/article/8-baby-penguins-are-pretty-cute-dont-stand-chance--686

[Lief 🗽]

Trying to train, arm secular factions of the Syrian rebels in a civil war that was already breaking out doesn't really make someone an "unrestrained warmonger". Not sure it would have been effective and neither is Hillary, as she admits. Can't see anything in here causing her political problems either.

On the internet, neocon/warmonger = anyone to the right of Ron Paul on foreign policy. It's starting to become as much of a meaningless buzzword as "neoliberal".

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Chillax on the beach. I don't understand these Hawaiians that are working so hard just so that they can go live in DC.

[TDAS04]

I often use emoticons in my post but I continue to be a cool poster none the less.

[Badger]

The one who didn't turn Canada into a caricature of what Canadians think the United States is like.

In other words, the one who did turn Canada into a caricature of what Americans think Canada is like?

[Flake]

I often use emoticons in my post but I continue to be a cool poster none the less.

^
That sounds really self centered out of context

I understand such matters far betteer than you boyo. I understand that the arguments about graduated minimum wage raises supposedly resulting in a net job loss has never materialized in practice. I realize that broadly rising wages creates comsumer demand and thus greater job growth to offset the worst imagined job losses. I realize that raising the lowest paid workers is a way to end corporate welfare subsidies by companies paying so little even their full time workers are forceedd to rely on food stamps and other public assistance. I know that 98+% of minimum wages workers support a raise in their wages, but upper mmiddle class and rich toffs are oh so willing to to save the poor ignorant dears from themselves.

I also know there's never been a poster who has more relied on buzzzwords and bald unsupported assertions, who nevertheless thought he was SOOO smart without basis, than you.

Yet, you're not smart enough to realize that the only sustainable way to raise median income is to have more labor demand than labor supply, a phenomenon we experienced in the late 90s. So you support min wage initiatives that encourage companies to lean their labor forces, and you refer to worker assistance programs as corporate welfare (as if individual corporations can control the labor market), though economists of all stripes have described such programs as superior to the current system which pays people not to work.

You are a penny-dreadful caricature of a high-school-educated working-class hero from the 1960s rust belt. Your only real job is putting yourself out of work with pompous self-important legislation.

Real min wage has been declining since the 1960s. What data are you examining that shows no job loss?

Increased labor demand is fostered by consumption requiring increased consumption fostering increased production. People like me know that rising wages is the feasable long term method to susxtain both growing employment and an economy based on the middle class.

People like you believe that the "real" way to maximize employment and wealth is to reduce the American standard of living to 50 cents an hour. Your economic utopia of a broad mass living at or near subsistance level (if even that) with a tiny oligarchical elite living in gated patrolled communities, and overall a stagnant national economy without a substantial middle class to nurture growth.

My model for a strong economy and employment is America; yours is Guatamala.

[Sopranos Republican]

Why would you have Mo Brooks in your signature?

Because I agree with him on a few issues.

Is it immigration

I do not support a path to citizenship.

My Nana just got her citizenship a few months ago. She's been living in this country longer than I've been alive and the process was so difficult for her. She's worked so hard for everything she's gotten and she's a productive member of society. Why you don't think she and people like her should not come into this country astounds me, especially because this nation is one of immigrants. Your ancestors were immigrants to this country and think of all the trouble it took for them to come here, now imagine telling them that they will never be able to live here legally, they can't get protection from the police for fear of being found out and deported to the country they worked so hard to leave. That they get treated like 2nd class citizens, their employers know that they can blackmail these people and make them leave this country.

Sorry for the rant but it makes me angry when someone has a position like this.