The Deluge of Absurdity, Ignorance, and Bad Posts

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Option 1.  $2.13 doesn't sound like much of a minimum wage, but let's bring it down for other workers to the same level as tipped employees.

I see some people can't recognize a joke without smileys.  Option 1 only said to make the minimum wage the same for tipped employees and untipped employees without specifying the level, so I gave it an admittedly absurd interpretation as a joke.

[Paul Kemp]

Bushie's teacher compared Lincoln to Hitler and...

Not very many agreed with him, but just because he doesn't bow down to Abe Lincoln, doesn't mean he's a bad teacher.

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

An Empire is a country which has an Emperor. Ergo, the only country which can make a halfway reasonable claim today to being an empire is Japan.

You're obviously the expert on Japanese culture here, not me...can you explain why that is absurd and ignorant? I'm not calling you out; this is a topic you know far more about than I do and I'm legitimately curious.

The sociological/political-science definition of an 'empire' in this context involves what's called a metropole exerting influence over what are called peripheries. It's a state that's to some extent set up like the heterogeneous realms ruled by the Western emperors of old, defined by that rather than by the presence of someone with that particular title. Previously most countries with empires were very interested in accruing an Emperor, because orders of precedence put them above kings and queens; this isn't as important as it used to be, and nothing theoretically prevents a republic from exercising its sovereignty in this way. Not only does Japan not really have peripheries anymore (unless you count Okinawa or Hokkaido), plenty of other countries do. Additionally, the 天皇 has his title translated as 'Emperor' and he does in fact outrank other heads of state in certain arcane ceremonial orders, but the terms derive from entirely different conceptions of sovereignty. 'Emperor' in the West implies, well, more or less what I just described. 天皇 implies a sacramental monarchy. Not mutually exclusive, obviously, but far from the same thing.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Abe Lincoln was not a nice guy and is widely known as a jerk.

[Maxwell]

Abe Lincoln was not a nice guy and is widely known as a jerk.

That just really confuses me. Did Bushie have a traumatic experience with a Lincoln?

[Maxwell]

I'm embarrassed that Democrats don't show up and help (besides Wyden).  

Where's your concern about civil liberties now?

They realize that this is a shameless attempt by the racist party to try to paint our African American president and AG as killers who will kill scared rich white people in Houston and Bowling Green.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Why do so few people know who useful idiot is, or appreciate his cutting irony? 

[Napoleon]

Why do so few people know who useful idiot is, or appreciate his cutting irony? 

Because he makes about 10 posts a month.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I was watching TV and saw a commercial and began getting angry. I was sick and tired of these types of commercials. Fast paced, futuristic bulls*it. One touch of a finger, the whole universe, blah blah blah. You know the type:



It makes me scared. I'm afraid America is not going to be unique anymore. I'm afraid that the future will be a one-world melting pot with liberal United Nations laws.

I mean, think about it.

America 1770s:


America 100 years or so later, the industrial revolution:


America 100 years or so later:


Now just 25 years later:





Mega futuristic technology, a complete melting pot, it just seems like America isn't unique anymore and it scares me.

[Lambsbread]

^ Yeah that post was really bad, especially this:

It makes me scared. I'm afraid America is not going to be unique anymore. I'm afraid that the future will be a one-world melting pot with liberal United Nations laws.

[Vosem]

An Empire is a country which has an Emperor. Ergo, the only country which can make a halfway reasonable claim today to being an empire is Japan.

You're obviously the expert on Japanese culture here, not me...can you explain why that is absurd and ignorant? I'm not calling you out; this is a topic you know far more about than I do and I'm legitimately curious.

The sociological/political-science definition of an 'empire' in this context involves what's called a metropole exerting influence over what are called peripheries. It's a state that's to some extent set up like the heterogeneous realms ruled by the Western emperors of old, defined by that rather than by the presence of someone with that particular title. Previously most countries with empires were very interested in accruing an Emperor, because orders of precedence put them above kings and queens; this isn't as important as it used to be, and nothing theoretically prevents a republic from exercising its sovereignty in this way. Not only does Japan not really have peripheries anymore (unless you count Okinawa or Hokkaido), plenty of other countries do. Additionally, the 天皇 has his title translated as 'Emperor' and he does in fact outrank other heads of state in certain arcane ceremonial orders, but the terms derive from entirely different conceptions of sovereignty. 'Emperor' in the West implies, well, more or less what I just described. 天皇 implies a sacramental monarchy. Not mutually exclusive, obviously, but far from the same thing.

Thanks -- it seems we're arguing more over the definition of 'empire' than anything to do with Japanese culture specifically, but I appreciate the explanation

[King]

I am predicting the United States economy will create 1 million new jobs in March and April.

[Paul Kemp]

The Naso thread got deleted? Terrible news.

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

An Empire is a country which has an Emperor. Ergo, the only country which can make a halfway reasonable claim today to being an empire is Japan.

You're obviously the expert on Japanese culture here, not me...can you explain why that is absurd and ignorant? I'm not calling you out; this is a topic you know far more about than I do and I'm legitimately curious.

The sociological/political-science definition of an 'empire' in this context involves what's called a metropole exerting influence over what are called peripheries. It's a state that's to some extent set up like the heterogeneous realms ruled by the Western emperors of old, defined by that rather than by the presence of someone with that particular title. Previously most countries with empires were very interested in accruing an Emperor, because orders of precedence put them above kings and queens; this isn't as important as it used to be, and nothing theoretically prevents a republic from exercising its sovereignty in this way. Not only does Japan not really have peripheries anymore (unless you count Okinawa or Hokkaido), plenty of other countries do. Additionally, the 天皇 has his title translated as 'Emperor' and he does in fact outrank other heads of state in certain arcane ceremonial orders, but the terms derive from entirely different conceptions of sovereignty. 'Emperor' in the West implies, well, more or less what I just described. 天皇 implies a sacramental monarchy. Not mutually exclusive, obviously, but far from the same thing.

Thanks -- it seems we're arguing more over the definition of 'empire' than anything to do with Japanese culture specifically, but I appreciate the explanation

You're welcome. (I mean, your definition of 'empire' is the intuitive and obvious one, but it's not the one that's preferred in current political science or the sense in which the other posters in that thread meant it.)

[King]

America truly has gone downhill when Naso's right to free speech is not given preference.

[Velasco]

I ususally abstain myself of posting here or in similar threads. However, the Iranian leader and the poster deserve a mention in the Deluge.

link

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I'm sure his predictions are as good as we are with predicting attacks on Iran or future oil prices.

[Vosem]

Think about what that led to... W was elected, but was ultimately disowned by the party and dragged his family name through the mud, and opened the door to a Dem Senate and President Obama. Do you think Jeb Bush regrets the purges of voters, ramming through the count, etc? If W had lost honestly and narrowly, could Jeb have become president in 2004 or 2008?

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Mitt was an unemployed American.

He has as much right to be employed as any other American.

I mean, after all, he was only earning twenty million dollars a year through his investments.

[Paul Kemp]

you act as if sexual fantasies are a bad thing!

They can be a good thing is if its you and your wife, but anything outside of that is sin.

[Lief 🗽]

That's more depressing than anything. The religious nutters have really done a number brainwashing him.

[Paul Kemp]

That's more depressing than anything. The religious nutters have really done a number brainwashing him.

Yea right after I posted it I thought about whether it belonged here or not. Probably not.

This poor guy probably beats him up every day over these so-called trespasses.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Now, seriously...

Venezuela needs more full-throated defenders of neoliberalism.

[Paul Kemp]

Now, seriously...

Venezuela needs more full-throated defenders of neoliberalism.

If there's ever a time for Bacon King to return, it's now.

[Kitteh]

This whole thread is terrible, minus the brief intelligent discussion of Rawls:
https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=170216.0

[Mechaman]

Howe and Strauss have the generations living in the twentieth century and now so pegged:

Transcendental 1792-1821
Gilded  1822-1842
Progressive 1843-1859
Missionary 1860-1882
Lost  1883-1900
GI 1901-1924
Silent 1925-1942
Boom 1943-1960
Thirteenth/X  1961-1981
Millennial 1982-? 

1882 links FDR to Churchill instead of to a bunch of gangsters, fascist and Nazi war criminals, and Stalinist functionaries or satraps -- and puts FDR in a generation more known for principle than for pragmatism. Maybe if Obama rates as one of the greatest Presidents ever he gets his birth-year reclassified as a "Boomer" year. Howe and Strauss recognize the early wave of Generation X as one of the most troubled waves of kids ever -- drug use, alcoholism, criminal arrests, and low achievements in education -- and for rejecting Boomer mass culture.