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slakr007's comments:
on Religious Clothing in the Classroom
The failure rate of common sense is exponentially proportional to the complexity of the issue.
Freedom of Religion is not a 100%, across the board restriction on Congress. Courts have frequently upheld the Constitutionality of restricting the expression of religion in public institutions (government, courts, schools, etc.).
If you want to go to the intent of a founding father, read the words of my hero Thomas Jefferson, a zealous advocate of public schools and religious freedom, and an equally zealous advocate of keeping religion far removed from public schools and the government at large.
Anyway, restricting public school teachers in no way infringes on their rights. Those teachers can teach at private religious schools. Similarly, you can send your children to private religious schools.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on The Reality of Reality TV
I was asking because they seem educational, but, from what I have seen, they are thought terminating. To me, the format (which is essentially the same as the trashy ones) just drains the educational value from them. But, I have not watched a lot of them, so it was interesting that you did find value in those shows.
"Dirty Jobs" is a good example. It's something I have watched a lot of. A great deal of the time, Mike Rowe seems very condescending and the show takes a tone of making fun of the jobs and the people more than providing any kind of insight into the task.
I read a summary of "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television." That seems more like a book about why we should be educating our children to be critical thinkers instead of why we should eliminate television. Television or not, if we do not educate our children to think for themselves, continue to learn and examine life around them, they will be subjugated.
Those in power can subjugate with newspapers just as easily as they can with TVs.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on The Reality of Reality TV
Actually, he seemed well past that point of maturity to me.
He told a story about responding calmly to a mishap and having the producer tell him that "Melvin" would not have responded so calmly.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on The Reality of Reality TV
Well said.
I would add that, from what little I have seen of the more educational reality shows (Axe Men, Deadliest Catch, etc.), they are very thought terminating.
For instance, I watched the documentary "Helvetica" and found myself buying books on fonts and font history. The same director followed it up with a documentary on industrial design, and I found myself buying a book about alternative software and hardware interface design.
Same with the BBC Planet Earth series. The whole time I was watching that, I had my laptop out and was reading tons and tons about nearly everything in that show.
The reality shows just do not inspire that in me. Logging is probably incredibly interesting, but like you said: the shows are so vacuous. The shows really do not touch the subjects in a way that inspires any sort of real interest beyond: "Who is this guy going to yell at next?"
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on The Reality of Reality TV
Me. A hobby skiier, pilot, photographer, professional software engineer, reader, tinkerer, and OPB listener. I still have time to consume copious amounts of Daily Show, Colbert Report, science fiction shows, all kinds of movies, etc.
Power of TiVo. Record only the shows you want and watch them when you get a chance.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on The Reality of Reality TV
You singled out "Deadliest Catch" there. Do you see any difference between the reality TV from the networks and reality TV from History, Discovery, etc.?
Axe Men, Deadliest Catch, Ice Road Truckers, and whatnot are still not my cup of tea (the speaker even said they try to pump up the drama), but they at least seem educational on some level. As opposed to Dancing with Stars, American Idol, etc. which are just trash on every level.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on The Reality of Reality TV
Personally, I hate them. ...but, they provide a level of unpredictability in a cheap and simple package.
Viewers win because they get shows the are not sports or shows that are dense with complex, intertwined story arcs and dramatic examination of life and events, but still get a level of drama and unpredictability higher than typical TV shows that use the same old predictable stories and jokes.
Studios win since, instead of paying writers, actors, artists, and investing in production to produce a quality, original, unpredictable show that might only appeal to 25% of their audiences, they can just find some people willing to do something marginally interesting, pump up the drama to insanely unrealistic levels, and...
Voila: cash money. Capitalism at its finest.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Paper, Plastic or What?
Yes, that's what he said.
I should have been more clear, Ethane can be isolated from either natural gas or oil. It is true that MOST plastic bags are made from Ethane isolated from natural gas, but it is not true that ALL plastic bags are and that NO oil is used.
I'm willing to bet you would be hard pressed to prove an exact figure on how much Ethane used comes from oil and how much comes from natural gas. So, both sides were being less than honest (both the 150,000 barrel comment and the no oil comment).
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Paper, Plastic or What?
That's probably the only good side of this ban that I see. We all talk about jobs lost, inconvenience, not having other options, etc. etc. etc.
But, really, industry is going to respond as it always does... find another solution that is as convenient or more so and make money at that.
People complain about all of the environmental regulations on the electronics industry, which did cause trouble for a while. But, now you have companies like Apple producing products that are crazy environmentally friendly and highly recyclable...and they have not added anything to their prices.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Paper, Plastic or What?
First plastic bags as stated do not use oil in their manufacturing cycle, so the 150,000 barrels of oil is such a lame use of facts and I am suprised that the senator would use it.
It's not a lame fact, it's just not a complete fact. Similarly, the other side made an equally incomplete claim that no oil is used in plastic bag manufacturing.
Ethane is isolated from BOTH natural gas and oil. So, it is disingenuous to say no oil is used, and it is, at best, incomplete to simply say "150,000 barrels of oil are required." The barrel fact may be true, but the senator did not back it up.
Secondly to make a big deal about your other guest being paid by the industry is also a lame excuse to undermind an opinion. It is a fact that the State of Oregon uses lobbyist's for specific things they want done in industry and Washington.
Yes, complete fallacy. You can't say: "Person A is a lobbyist and Evil Industries X, Y, and Z have lobbyists."
Lastly it would be wise to surf the internet for pictures of animals being hurt by these bags. I am aware of the turtle but are you aware that most of the enviromental pictures when not used with the campaign against plastic bags, are pictures of plastic that secures a six pack of soda or alcohol.
I did do a Google Images search and posted the link in another post. I found plenty of images in the first few result pages that were not the turtle or animals with the six pack rings.
But, it's still weak to say: "Hey, you can find hundreds of images of animals eating plastic bags." I can go find hundreds of images of children crying with their parents next to them, it doesn't mean there is an epidemic of parents beating kids.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Paper, Plastic or What?
Yep, turtle eating blue plastic pops up a lot...but, there are 2.4 million results and plenty of images of animals other than that turtle.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Paper, Plastic or What?
Saying plastic bags are made of Ethane and not oil is disingenuous. They separate the Ethane from oil. So, they are still using oil.
That's a little like saying you don't use oil because you burn Kerosene.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on The End of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"?
I'm not sure it's really that big of a deal. It's too bad a guy I know probably will not be able to comment on any of this because of work. He served pretty much openly on a submarine. As far as he has told me, everyone was mutually respectful and cohabitation was never a problem.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on The End of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"?
@ marcants
The truth of the matter is that men are for the most part predators and most of us men know that to some extent or another.
Then you deal with the people that cross the line. That's the whole point. You don't ban women from the military because they might be raped, you prosecute rapists. You don't ban gays from the military because they might prey on straights, you punish gays that cross the line.
Anyway, suck it up and be an adult. Boohoo, a gay man hit on you...oh, the trauma! Imagine how a woman feels putting up with that everyday outside of the military...let alone in the military where, as eddiecoyote pointed out, she is more likely to be raped than killed by enemy fire.
As far as showers go, you know, it is possible to be respectful and not look at the person next you...woman or man. It's even possible, as a straight man, to catch a glimpse of a naked woman and not get turned on. And, you know what? Gay men can control themselves too...because they are human beings...like you and me...and they respect other human beings.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on The End of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"?
2,947 sexual assault reports filed with the Pentagon in 2006. Up 24% from 2005.
2,923 sexual assault reports filed with the Pentagon in 2008.
The Army even says there is no evidence of an increase in assaults, just a willingness to report them. That is reassuring.
And, for added fun, there is a great deal of evidence that military command structure attempts to silence victims with threats.
In light of these facts, I am sure Senator McCain and everyone else that opposes gays in the military will proudly stand up and advocate a ban on women in the military. After all, it's really all about unit cohesion and morale, right?
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on The End of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"?
"The end of [DADT] won't be a celebration, it won't be an achievement, an 'oh we've come such a long way', it will be more like 'Domino's arrives an hour late with your inedible, frigid pizza.' Don't Ask, Don't Tell---Don't Want Any."
The reference to Domino's is too awesome to worry about little things like acronym errors!
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on The End of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"?
And what historical parallels might shed light on this moment?
So many. The summary mentions integration of the military which is good from a logistics point of view... how did they do it, how did it work, how long did it take, how did military dynamics change, etc. etc.
But, what about considering that blacks (black females even...double the irony!), after suffering at the hands of whites for centuries and literally having to fight tooth and nail for civil rights and the removal of anti-miscegenation laws in the Land of the Free (TM), turned around and voted in religious blocs to "defend marriage" and deny equal rights under the law to a group of people? ...a group of people that even overlaps their own ethnicity!
"This has all happened before, and it will all happen again." --- BSG
That is probably the most depressingly true statement ever made by a television show and it applies across the board to politics and humanity at large. In this case, though, there will always be a marginalized section of humanity, and a majority of people, no matter their own past experiences with marginalization, will be perfectly willing to enforce that marginalization.
I do not know who it will be after gays... Maybe the Dutch, maybe Whites, maybe aliens... but, I am sure there will be many gays not in that group that will gladly throw them out of the military, vote away their marriage/reproduction/adoption rights, beat them to death, etc. etc. etc.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Kicking the Kicker?
Thank you, thx1138 for a beautiful illustration of the fallacy of irrelevance.
See, what you did there is make the argument that something is wrong because Lenin said it instead of actually providing a coherent argument for why a state bank is wrong. As you may have noticed, the original poster gave reasons why a state bank can be helpful. It is usually customary to counter those arguments with your own arguments instead of a quote from someone you think is evil.
I have to give you some credit, though. Most people would have gone to Hitler instead (hence the term Reductio ad Hilterum) since Deutsche Bank became the financial arm of the Third Reich during the Hitler years.
Good work keeping up the hyperbole and absolutism of modern politics!
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Kicking the Kicker?
...oh, and another thing, stop calling tax money OUR money. You pay the government to provide services, it stops being your money when it leaves your wallet.
The only difference between paying government and paying Albertson's is that you change government by voting and you change Albertson's by taking your money to Safeway.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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on Kicking the Kicker?
I guess I will just say this for the record since I did not get a chance to participate today, but it always makes me laugh when people assume they can do a better job of managing money than the government and assert that the government should be run like a business (or, more laughably, that it is a family and should sit at the kitchen table and figure out how to tighten its belt).
All businesses have one goal: profit.
Our government has one goal: provide services.
Right off the bat, it should be obvious you cannot run one like the other.
But consider the deeper implications. What services does our government provide? A business decides: "I'm going to profit providing product X or service Y." Our government has to deal with a constantly raging battle over what services it is going to provide based on the whims of election cycles.
Further, a business has a CEO that ultimately decides everything (mostly by hiring like-minded people below him). Our government has different branches specifically designed to prevent that. So, you have Democrats wanting money to go to A, B, or C; Republicans wanting money to go to X, Y, or Z; Libertarians fighting for no government; etc. etc. etc.
And, you would have be pretty naive to think a corporation of any substantial size is not immensely wasteful. Now stop before you say: "Hey, at least they make a profit." Remember that our government succeeds in providing damn good services, so they both meet their goals despite waste.
Anyway, go ahead keep dreaming that, if only you could be elected, you could walk right in to Salem or Washington with your "common sense" savvy and get everyone in line, make government more efficient, provide services without taxing anyone, and make it rain lollipops.
posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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