The Lief Reservoir of Simple Truths and Smart One-Liners

[Simfan34]

The old thread was nearly 800 posts under the limit! Let's not start lowering standards before we find ourselves with Update Season XLVII. Reopen the old one, please.

[Simfan34]

Sweden Democrats are rising because people are morons. Any attempt to justify this otherwise amounts to condoning xenophobia (which I'm sure many posters are all too happy to do anyway).

Tony, you know and I know that there is a difference between justification and explanation. 'Because people are morons' isn't an explanation because people can be morons in all sorts of different ways, only some of which cause them to vote for xenophobic political parties.

[Simfan34]

local African languages like Luo and Swahili.

Ironic because Swahili is a second language for many of its speakers due to its status as a lingua franca among smaller local language groups in East Africa.

Knowing that would require them learning something about Africa. They are only there to teach Africa something.

[Simfan34]

Am I naive in wondering why they can't just have an unimpeachable, inoffensive MLK-style march? Even Fox News couldn't get hot and bothered about that.

The problem is, many whites will view the march as being another Sharpton stunt. Even MLK was controversial in his lifetime among many whites, even those who weren't racists from the south. I don't condone rioting, but it is not my place to decide what the black communities response should be.

[Simfan34]

Thomas from NJ at least takes his religion seriously, which is more than you can say of BRTD, who goes to church for the beer and CHRISTIAN HARDCORE EMOVIOLENCE

[Simfan34]

Both of them are jokes, McCain ideologically, Romney personally. They should not be taken seriously, but I suppose why nobody cares for McCain yet is that he's still a Senator, while Romney is out of politics (not holding office). Also, Romney was the last nominee, nobody remembers McCain anymore.

I always love when an anonymous member of an internet board calls extremely accomplished Presidential nominees "jokes"...

[Simfan34]

No. If anything, the American public needs to dress more like the president. Enough with the golf shirts at work and the sweatpants on airplanes.

I'd also like to see:
1. More variety of shirts and neckties. Why does a politician's shirt/tie have to always match the national colors? No other country does that.
2. Morning dress at inauguration and other major events like SOTU. Reagan was the last president to break out the waistcoat and tails.
3. More homages to regional dress. We don't really have a "national costume" like non-western nations. But it would be nice for, say, a congressman representing a large number of Native Americans to occasionally incorporate elements of traditional dress; or someone from Miami could wear a guayabera every now and then.

[Simfan34]

Ironically--

In general Trump has the worst surrogates and spokespeople on cable. Not only do they seem to be loathsome people but they don't do a good job of staying on message. It is another sign of how slapdash his whole campaign is. But like having minimal ground game and almost no advertising it doesn't seem to hurt him.

More anti-Trump garbage from this site's moderators. Trump has a very good ground game, as has been repeatedly reported on in the media over the past few months, and can be objectively evidenced by the ease and speed which he has qualified for primary ballots.

No offence, Lief, because I like you and stuff...

But we're reaching a point where the ironic Trump support is untenable. He was a bigot before, but it wasn't exactly making its way into policy. He's crossed a line with his Muslim ban, and to still support him is to kind of be complicit in that. It's not funny anymore—just scary.

[Simfan34]

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Along with over half of people thinking its very serious or somewhat serious. I think at this point whether or not the majority of us believe it is man-made, the majority do believe its pretty serious and that the government should do what it can to stop it. Since we know why the earth is warming and how to mitigate this issue (at least somewhat), then we should try to do that instead of arguing about origins.

After all, does it matter why, say, a car is hurtling towards you at 100mph? If you don't get out of the way, it's going to kill you.

[Simfan34]

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That sounds awfully eww-tilitarian to me.

I suppose it will very from person to person, but utilitarian arguments are what ultimately convinced me that universal healthcare was a good and necessary idea.

For me it is just common sense. If you are going to treat people at the emergency room and give people Medicare, why would you deny coverage of things that reduces significantly the cost burdens on both?

My souring opinions on movement conservatism has also encompassed most of the Republican positions on healthcare as well, which at this point amount to miss applied philosophical bullsh**t and cliche euphemisms that clearly only exist as a product of being horribly out of touch with the reality of most of the people. I love saving accounts, savings accounts are great, but the amount you can contribute directly correlates with your income and you are in the territory of basically saying "you want healthcare, get a job" as if it is some kind of luxury, unless you have some kind of sliding scale subsidy.

That said while I agree with covering the poor and helping the middle class substantially, I don't favor tax payers funding healthcare for people like Donald Trump, who are more than capable of paying for it themselves. That is why I don't support single payer.