The Good Post Gallery

[Oakvale]

Torie absolutely nails it -

Since when is going to school not wanting to change someone's life?  I have nothing to be ashamed of.  I am NOT going to hell because of the crap and lies you mention. I am going to heaven because I accepted Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross.  That's it.  Left to my own, yeah, I'd be going to he'll, but I'm not on my own. God walks with me hand in hand, day by day.  I'm fine.

Yes, I broke down, and read this page of the thread. First Bushie, speculation is not libel. You should not toss that word around recklessly. Second, the one thing that is clear is that you are doing close to everything possible short of suicide to join your Jesus in heaven at the earliest practicable time - at which time all of your problems will go away, to be replaced by joy and contentment.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Hell no.

We are a dying, stumbling empire.  Our army is demoralized and badly in need of rest.  Our foreign relationships are frayed.  We have abdicated all legitimate claims to being the morality cops to the rest of the world.  We have bridges that are collapsing, cities that are vulnerable to superstorms which will occur more frequently as a result of our tendency to live large, and we're seriously considering spending billions of dollars to help stabilize the region that supplies our addiction?!  It's too much for any sane person to bear.  Bush Lite is becoming as bad as Bush.  And so are the rest of them. 

We have huge problems in this country that need solving.  Dr. Bashar al Assad is a problem for the Syrians.  He only becomes a problem for me because Mr. Obama says he's a problem for me.  What brainwashing.  To hell with it.  We should vote Obama and every one of those bums in congress out the next chance we get.  I cannot believe people are actually considering this.  Viet Nam.  Iraq.  Afghanistan.  We just don't ever learn, do we.  We're a stubborn, militaristic people, and if we insist on continuing these futile and costly exercises in imperialism, then we deserve the economic ruin that will surely accompany them.

[opebo]

"loving on" is not an intimate action.  It is caring for, talking to, playing with, or just spending time with someone and show them that they are loved.  It should not be an unusual phrase and anybody with an understanding of real love should know it is nothing of intimate or sexual connotations.

[Sol]

Raising the minimum wage would only force the chains to fire thousands of workers.

Adorable assumption that has no basis in reality.

It would imply we don't live in a capitalist society.  If a restaurant owner fired X% of his staff yet demand for his product stayed the same, the quality of service and product would decline the productivity of X% and the business revenue would eventually decline as well and the own.

In consumer capitalism, the business owner has no power to decide how many workers he needs.  The consumer decides this.  

This is why tax cuts on the upper class are so generally ineffective.  A restaurant owner could have all of his tax dollars returned to him and the incentive to expand his business instead of take a vacation is 0. He doesn't decide to expand unless consumers demand a bigger restaurant with more tables, more waiters, and more food.

Like all good democracies, in capitalism is following the will of the most which drives economies into prosperity. Minimum wage increases are the greatest economic stimulus a government can perform because it gives the most more power to will.

-Education system has failed them
-They made poor social decisions

Thanks Captain Hindsight, but this does nothing to help them in the short term.

And it doesn't help this country either.  Until Skynet is ready to take over, we need these hard blue collar laborers.  The idea of sending the guys who work at McDonalds, Jiffy Lube, and the sanitation department to school to become something "worthwhile" (a.k.a. another worthless dental hygentist or paralegal) is cute, but destructive to our society.

Every job in this country that is supposedly important needs to be a job the worker can be proud of holding.  If fast food workers are so worthless that raising their wages would result in mass layoffs with 0 ramifications to society, then it's not a job and all of these people are already unemployed.

[bballrox4717]

Raising the minimum wage would only force the chains to fire thousands of workers.

Adorable assumption that has no basis in reality.

It would imply we don't live in a capitalist society.  If a restaurant owner fired X% of his staff yet demand for his product stayed the same, the quality of service and product would decline the productivity of X% and the business revenue would eventually decline as well and the own.

In consumer capitalism, the business owner has no power to decide how many workers he needs.  The consumer decides this.  

This is why tax cuts on the upper class are so generally ineffective.  A restaurant owner could have all of his tax dollars returned to him and the incentive to expand his business instead of take a vacation is 0. He doesn't decide to expand unless consumers demand a bigger restaurant with more tables, more waiters, and more food.

Like all good democracies, in capitalism is following the will of the most which drives economies into prosperity. Minimum wage increases are the greatest economic stimulus a government can perform because it gives the most more power to will.

-Education system has failed them
-They made poor social decisions

Thanks Captain Hindsight, but this does nothing to help them in the short term.

And it doesn't help this country either.  Until Skynet is ready to take over, we need these hard blue collar laborers.  The idea of sending the guys who work at McDonalds, Jiffy Lube, and the sanitation department to school to become something "worthwhile" (a.k.a. another worthless dental hygentist or paralegal) is cute, but destructive to our society.

Every job in this country that is supposedly important needs to be a job the worker can be proud of holding.  If fast food workers are so worthless that raising their wages would result in mass layoffs with 0 ramifications to society, then it's not a job and all of these people are already unemployed.

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

At this point, I think the Silicon Valley VC douchebag has surpassed the Manhattan PE douchebag on the douchebaggery scale. At least private equity makes their money slicing and dicing actual companies that make actual things and firing actual workers, as opposed to having a bunch of on-paper money from an iPhone app that nobody actually uses.

[opebo]

I think Colorado is the most politically interesting state right now. For one, it has become a presidential bellwether state. It is closely connected in its statewide margins to Virginia, since 1996, which was the best bellwether for Elections 2008 and 2012 (which left Colo. to rank Nos. 3 and 2 over the last two cycles). In fact, Colo.'s gender-voting outcomes from 2008 matched the national percentages of support for President Obama by both males (49) and females (56). No other state did that! (From 2012, the exit-polled state which best matched up was the nation's most-recognized bellwether, Ohio. It was No. 2 for statewide-vs.-nationwide in its margin.)

While much has been said of California has been true, that it is a trendsetter, I can see a common denominator in the two states. And Colo. deserves plenty attention.

Just look at how Colo. voted last year. The ballot-proposal passage for marijuana that is not just medicinal but also recreational. That state's voters embraced this before Oregon, regularly in the Democratic presidential column since 1988, and before a whole host of blue presidential states. And Colo.'s voting electorate flipped the state House to the Democratic column.

The way Colo. is heading, it's probably going to get marriage equality in its state before a number of other blue presidential states, like my home state Michigan (which has Republican majorities via the midterm wave of 2010 and a state Democratic party which has rested on their supposed laurels for much too long that it made a switch with the chairmanship). And given that the Colo. state legislators went for civil unions, which is not the solution but was an improvement, before Mich. and many other presidential blue states, I think that state is worthy of plenty discussion. California brought marriage equality to the U.S. Supreme Court, so to speak, and Colo. is one state that is amongst the first to bring marijuana (recreational along with medicinal) to the national conversation about the freedom to personally use a substance that does not harm anywhere on the level as does alcohol.

There was also the 2012 vote, by the Colorado electorate, on fracking. For more of a report about the 2012 vote in Colorado, I'll give this link: @  http://www.salon.com/2012/11/07/progressives_win_big_in_colorado/ .


There is a thread where one person tries to argue that state of Pennsylvania is going in the direction of the Republicans by phrasing it as "the right." No. That is a base state for the Democratic Party, and has a blue tilt since after the 1940s. With Colo., and with its 2012 voting, it's become a presidential bellwether state which produces margins tightly connected with the national numbers. And Coloradoans are saying, "Go left!"

That contradicts with the national policies of both the two parties (both in a Washington, D.C. bubble for what seems an eternity); they have a comfy bubble in which they live. Great money. Great benefits. Great payoffs. But it's becoming more and more apparent that social and political policies, by voters, are telling this country to go in the direction of the left. Trendsetter states California and Colorado are helping to lead the way.

[Oakvale]

Context somewhat necessary.

This sort of macho posturing from privileged suburban brats is pretty disgusting. You - and the pathetic middle management cocks you will all doubtless turn into - are enemies of decency, morality and all worthwhile forms of civilisation.

[traininthedistance]

Agreeing with this will probably get me pilloried in some quarters, but whatever.

Joe Lhota is the only candidate who would prefer kittens being run over to delayed subway trains so far, for the record.

Good for him. We're talking about a city where millions of people rely on public transportation to get around every day. The alternative is routinely stranding thousands of people for long periods of time (in the case of the kitten-herding incident earlier this week, at least ninety minutes). This isn't a decision that the mayor would make, but it's disappointing to see that only one candidate would put keeping the city functioning ahead of pandering.

[Kitteh]

Agreeing with this will probably get me pilloried in some quarters, but whatever.

Joe Lhota is the only candidate who would prefer kittens being run over to delayed subway trains so far, for the record.

Good for him. We're talking about a city where millions of people rely on public transportation to get around every day. The alternative is routinely stranding thousands of people for long periods of time (in the case of the kitten-herding incident earlier this week, at least ninety minutes). This isn't a decision that the mayor would make, but it's disappointing to see that only one candidate would put keeping the city functioning ahead of pandering.

But kitties... T___T

Seriously, though, if Americans learned to be less uptight about keeping to a rigorously scheduled and overworked life this would be much less of a problem. Americans desperately need more relaxation time, people should be celebrating the extra hour and a half to just chill. I don't think there would be such uproar if this happened in the Paris Metro for example.

[traininthedistance]

Agreeing with this will probably get me pilloried in some quarters, but whatever.

Joe Lhota is the only candidate who would prefer kittens being run over to delayed subway trains so far, for the record.

Good for him. We're talking about a city where millions of people rely on public transportation to get around every day. The alternative is routinely stranding thousands of people for long periods of time (in the case of the kitten-herding incident earlier this week, at least ninety minutes). This isn't a decision that the mayor would make, but it's disappointing to see that only one candidate would put keeping the city functioning ahead of pandering.

But kitties... T___T

Seriously, though, if Americans learned to be less uptight about keeping to a rigorously scheduled and overworked life this would be much less of a problem. Americans desperately need more relaxation time, people should be celebrating the extra hour and a half to just chill. I don't think there would be such uproar if this happened in the Paris Metro for example.

The fact that Americans' lives are on average overscheduled and overworked really can't be an excuse for saying that it's okay to shut down crucial public services.  Down that path lies... nothing good.

(Two big reasons: while I'm sure some folks can just "chill out", it's quite presumptuous and I'm sure wrong to assume that nobody who was inconvenienced by this didn't have a genuine emergency to attend to, or wasn't materially harmed by missing work, doctor's appointments, flights, etc. etc. etc.  Secondly, I really don't like how this line of thinking can be extended to become a justification for poor/shoddy/spotty service in general.)

[Kitteh]

Agreeing with this will probably get me pilloried in some quarters, but whatever.

Joe Lhota is the only candidate who would prefer kittens being run over to delayed subway trains so far, for the record.

Good for him. We're talking about a city where millions of people rely on public transportation to get around every day. The alternative is routinely stranding thousands of people for long periods of time (in the case of the kitten-herding incident earlier this week, at least ninety minutes). This isn't a decision that the mayor would make, but it's disappointing to see that only one candidate would put keeping the city functioning ahead of pandering.

But kitties... T___T

Seriously, though, if Americans learned to be less uptight about keeping to a rigorously scheduled and overworked life this would be much less of a problem. Americans desperately need more relaxation time, people should be celebrating the extra hour and a half to just chill. I don't think there would be such uproar if this happened in the Paris Metro for example.

The fact that Americans' lives are on average overscheduled and overworked really can't be an excuse for saying that it's okay to shut down crucial public services.  Down that path lies... nothing good.

(Two big reasons: while I'm sure some folks can just "chill out", it's quite presumptuous and I'm sure wrong to assume that nobody who was inconvenienced by this didn't have a genuine emergency to attend to, or wasn't materially harmed by missing work, doctor's appointments, flights, etc. etc. etc.  Secondly, I really don't like how this line of thinking can be extended to become a justification for poor/shoddy/spotty service in general.)

I'm not advocating letting general public transit standards decline, but I do believe that the lives of animals deserve moral consideration; and pointing out that the inconvenience caused by this was overblown, symptomatic of a much larger problem, and miniscule in comparison to the harm that is caused by ending a creature's life even when multiplied out thousands of times is absolutely relevant to the utilitarian calculus here.

[rejectamenta]

I think I'd start kicking out windows and crapping on the floor in true Worldstar fashion if my ride was delayed for an hour and a half over a few grimy fleabags.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I hope someone didn't beat me on this.

Hi.

Speaking up as a member of the What-if board regulars (though I do not presume to be its representative) I'd like to state my appreciation of your interest in the What-if board, alternate scenarios and the like. The What-if community has been on the wane since my joining the forum, and "new blood" is always appreciated.

However, you seem to be getting ahead of yourself a bit in your participation here. Today alone, you have started five threads, some of which pertaining to the same election. Looking back to the bottom of the first page yields further threads started by you, and you account for roughly 43% (nearly half!) of threads on the first page.

There is also the matter of Alternative Elections elections, where you've posted an additional 8 threads (23%, not as egregious) and two more threads on the main forum (both of which misplaced and belonging in the Past US Election What-ifs board (which would make you fall just short of half of the threads posted.)

Additionally, some of the scenarios are a bit far-flung. Brown as Carter's VP? The ticket would have ~6 years of "legitimate" experience to it. Dukakis picking Jackson? Perhaps if the Electoral College was scored like golf. For the sake of brevity, I'll disregard issues with Dole picking Buchanan or Wilson.

Point being, that you have been turning this board into your own personal barf bag. Your enthusiasm is appreciated here, but I think I speak for the community when I ask that you tone it down with the thread creation for a few days.

[Antonio the Sixth]

He defended Pol Pot. Automatic HP.

I know I shouldn't do this as this will probably turn out to be a waste of oxygen but the temptation is too strong... What's your opinion of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher?

If you really think that Apartheid South Africa and Pinochet's Chile (which were both INCREDIBLY awful places) are anywhere near as bad as Pol Pot's Cambodia, then you should seek psychiatric health.

But you'd presumably consider supporters of Apartheid South Africa "HPs" nonetheless, no?

Did I say anything about Pinochet's Chile?

I think you find I did not

Did I say anything about Apartheid South Africa?

I think you find I did not

So what was I referring to?

I was referring to your post on Pol Pot's Cambodia... you know the state that the US and UK constantly recognized and supported in the 1980s despite it being overthrown by Soviet backed Vietnamese forces in 1979. Yes, I was referring to that government.

(It's amazing to realize the extent to which this has been swept under the carpet - took me ages to find good links that weren't from obvious left-wing kook cites or John Pilger. But I repeat myself).

EDIT: Edu's already got there

No, but I assumed you were talking about SA and Argentina, because as I mentioned in response to Edu, the support for Khmer Rouge by right wingers was just a hollow, geopolitical act targeting the Vietnam-USSR backed regime, while Palme was defending the merits of Pol Pot's actual rule during a visit to Cuba in the mid seventies.

I'm not here particularly interested in defending Palme (except perhaps I will ask how do you know that his "support" was not likewise hollow? His statement was made on a state visit to Cuba ffs. As it happens, Sweden withdrew support from Democratic Kampuchea in the early 1980s before the US and UK governments did - 'hollow' or otherwise), what am I interested in is showing your nauseating political relativism and your ability to parrot tired tropes of right-wing thoughts as if you were wind-up computational machine which required only a postmodernist to come by an install a "right-wing Reaganite troll persona" algorithm into your cerebral cortex in order to function.

Anyway, it is interesting that you used the language of hollow and geopolitical. Ah yes, it was geopolitical - and therefore justifiable. And it was hollow and thus not really authentic. Therefore you argue that the US and UK wasn't real. Which I have no doubt is of great comfort to the thousands of Khmer who died during the Wars of the 1980s which were propagated in part by the actions of the US and the UK and their hollow geopolitical gestures in supporting the Khmer Rouge and continuing to recognize Pol Pot's regime as the legitimate government of the country. Similarly I'm sure they are outraged at what some Swedish Prime Minister said once on a state visit to a country on the other side of planet of which I suspect few Khmer have ever heard of and comments, on which I should add, seem to have had no consequences whatsoever and are thus not hollow, geopolitical gestures.

But yes, no doubt Palme was a horrible and terrible person for supporting the Khmer Rouge.

[traininthedistance]

I'm not advocating letting general public transit standards decline

I understand that's not your intention; but unintended consequences must be taken into account.

but I do believe that the lives of animals deserve moral consideration;

Agreed in the abstract; though I suspect we are not particularly close when it comes to the details of that.

and pointing out that the inconvenience caused by this was overblown

I couldn't disagree more.  Of course, quality of public transit is one of the issues I care most deeply about.

symptomatic of a much larger problem

Care to elaborate?  I think this episode is in fact symptomatic of a much larger problem, but I'm quite certain I'm thinking of a very different problem than you are.

and miniscule in comparison to the harm that is caused by ending a creature's life even when multiplied out thousands of times is absolutely relevant to the utilitarian calculus here.

So are you suggesting we stop the trains for pigeons, rats, squirrels, etc?  That seems to me the logical extension of your argument, but doing so would of course quite literally end all functioning public transit (among other things), pretty much forever.  (Of course, these animals don't actually get run over all that often, since they can get out of the way.)

[King]

Pinochet's chile is pretty tasty, just the right amount of spices.

[Kitteh]

Personally, the fact that women are, in fact not equal anywhere in the world despite all of the efforts of the feminist movement is pretty obvious. Yes, there are issues- such as child custody, and education, life expectancy, and so on where women are favored over men, and these are important. And it's important that there are people who are working on them- but it makes sense that these people be men. After all, men are the most adversely affected by these issues, we are the ones who have the most stake and understanding there. So I understand why feminists, per se, don't work on these issues. And I think these exceptions are generally just that - they are still subordinate to the general kyriarchy of social relations, which men, (as defined by the kyriarchy itself - as are the whole concepts of masculine and feminine) are placed on a higher position than women. I would say it is less about men vs. women per se than analysis and social critique, in general. Which also extends to race, class, sexual orientation, disability, body and beauty standards, and so on. Actually, the older I get, the more firmly rooted I see that this hierarchy is in multiple ways.

tfw someone other than me or Nathan uses the term kyriarchy here

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

In terms of this awful debate on animal rights, public transit is of course a ridiculous idea, but in awful cities like New York, it may be necessary. That said, it should be the best it can be, and if we can decrease the surplus population of animals to do it, all the better. Though seriously, I get pissed off at slow drivers. People gotta get to places and they don't need some damned rodents to get in the way.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Personally, the fact that women are, in fact not equal anywhere in the world despite all of the efforts of the feminist movement is pretty obvious. Yes, there are issues- such as child custody, and education, life expectancy, and so on where women are favored over men, and these are important. And it's important that there are people who are working on them- but it makes sense that these people be men. After all, men are the most adversely affected by these issues, we are the ones who have the most stake and understanding there. So I understand why feminists, per se, don't work on these issues. And I think these exceptions are generally just that - they are still subordinate to the general kyriarchy of social relations, which men, (as defined by the kyriarchy itself - as are the whole concepts of masculine and feminine) are placed on a higher position than women. I would say it is less about men vs. women per se than analysis and social critique, in general. Which also extends to race, class, sexual orientation, disability, body and beauty standards, and so on. Actually, the older I get, the more firmly rooted I see that this hierarchy is in multiple ways.

tfw someone other than me or Nathan uses the term kyriarchy here

I'd be quite interested in learning what kyriarchy is (well, sure, I could read wikipedia, but whatever ).

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

This idea of trying to engage with fascists as if they might have a point about a few things has been tried in Europe before. Didn't end very well. Makes many people less than convinced about the merits of doing so again.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Why do you hate it TJ? I gave my reason.

I hate Black Friday because it is a pathetic display of the insanity of American Atlasian consumerism at its very worst. The day seems to exist for the very purpose of being a caricature for our ADD world where we change all our pricing for one day (right after we hypocritically profess to God and our families our deep gratitude and contentness for all we have) so people can get trampled to death in a stampede at Walmart to get some random object at 30% off. I mean, for heaven sakes, folks, can we at least remember what we all said the day before? Oh wait, now it's like 5 hours ago since Friday starts on Thursday or something like that. And apparently no one would do Christmas shopping unless we're lead by the TV set like Pavlov's dogs foaming at the mouth, or so it seems by the fact that companies continue to hold Black Friday sales (if it didn't work, no one would do it). Not to mention this is all done for a holiday which the season for hasn't even started yet.

[Sol]

Probably FDR.  Certainly not LBJ, as he only supported the CRA and VRA for political expediency.

You're just like a broken vinyl, aren't you?

If LBJ supported something due to political expediency, it were his Southern colleagues when he was a Senator. I mean, he was from Texas, which wouldn't elect an all-out integrationist.

I've read many sources stating LBJ was rather personally sensitive to the plights of minorities. He did not grew up in a racist home (his father, a state legislation, was fighting with the KKK machine).

The funniest part, even if we assume he supported the CRA and VRA for political expediency, he still did more for the Afircan American's rights than any Republican President post-Grant.

You love to talk about how much you care about Blacks, so maybe you should give him a little credit, you little hack?

[Tetro Kornbluth]

WALL OF TEXT THAT NO ONE READS BUT YOU SURE HOPE LOOKS IMPRESSIVE AND 'SCIENCEY'.

MISLEADING GRAPH

ANOTHER WALL OF TEXT (SEE ABOVE FOR DETAILS, ETC.)

LAUGHABLE TABLE

ANOTHER WALL OF TEXT (IBID)

MISLEADING GRAPH

SMUG CONCLUDING REMARKS

Context somewhat necessary though you can guess what he is referring to.

[Lief 🗽]

So because domestic violence rates have fallen dramatically (again, no idea where you're getting this or what population it refers to) then fathers shouldn't bother to stick around? 

Poverty is a foolproof marriage repellant. And if you try to refute that with wholesome stories of ma and pa staying together during the Depression when they lost the farm, I will respond by pointing out that prevailing gender roles and social norms were what prevented marriages in that era from dissolving.

The reality is that women do not "need" a man and men do not "need" a woman in the ways they once did that transcended and took precedence over economic realities.

Who chops the firewood? The man. Nobody - we have gas and electricity.
Who plants the crops? The man. Hispanic migrant workers.
Who guards the homestead? The man. Police and ADT.
Who cooks the meals? The woman. The microwave or the staff at your local restaurant.
Who makes the clothes? The woman. Bangladeshi orphans.
Who keeps you warm at night? My spouse. The guy/girl I bring home from the club on a given night.

We've outsourced most of our husbandly/wifely duties for economic, technological and social reasons over the past 40 or so years. If you don't love someone, you have no reason to stay with them. If you don't like being with someone, you have no reason to stay with them.

If you're poor, you're stressed all the time, tired all the time and arguing about money all the time. That doesn't make you want to be with someone and could very well make you despise them over time.

Why would a working-class/underclass father bother to stick around? He has no way to provide for his family in any meaningful way.