Hot, Bad & Unpopular Takes

[Badger]

I think the Omphalos hypothesis is a likely possibility of our Earth’s past, though I am a theistic evolutionist.

The Omphalos hypothesis doesn't resolve the problem for Biblical literalists that the fossil record shows that if Genesis is to be taken as literal history either God allowed lies to exist in the fossil record or that on an Earth supposedly designed to be perfect, with every species fulfilling its unique role, far less than 1% of the species that ever were are still around today.  You don't even need to bring up the age of the universe to make a compelling case for the first eleven chapters of Genesis to be considered myth rather than history.

I prefer the term 'parable' to 'myth'.

[Badger]

Gone with the Wind is camp and should be renounced by the film community.

More importantly, it's also subtle pro-Confederate propaganda.

“Subtle” is an odd word choice

The movie is basically Harlequin Romance for Lost Causers

That. Is. Perfect.

[Badger]

"Good billionaires" do not exist.

I'm not a fan of billionaires but I think some are decent. I have respect for Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and Phil Knight.

Warren Buffett too.

[Badger]

- Randy Bryce shouldn’t be elected dogcatcher.

^ Terrible user right here ^

Sorry fam

I have to admit this just changed my opinion of Bryce. His entire delinquency was a little over $1,250?!? In terms of child support arrearage that is absolute chickensh**t. He fell behind some bills and caught up. That by no means makes him a so-called deadbeat dad. I'm currently representing a guy who, because of equal economic problems, fell behind about 70 grand in his support. He is paid almost half that off in the last couple months now that his deferred compensation from the businesses he's been starting have come in, and he'll be paying the balance off this summer. Most of these child support cases are dudes that have rarely if ever paid and rarely if ever will, Towing thousands if not tens of thousands.

Sorry, but while falling behind a bit over $1,000 in child support is not laudable oh, even if it was because he was short on personal income for a couple months, this hardly makes him a deadbeat dad. Trust me as someone who has represented a good number of them.

[Badger]

IMO the biggest problem with child support is that there seems to be no opt-out for it at all.  I don't think any person should be subject to 18 years hard labor against their will, physical or financial, male or female.  That precisely is why I'm pro-choice.

But, I also believe that childbearing should be universally discouraged.  That's what puts me at odds with most people, I think.

if you sign your rights away don't you not have to pay child support anymore?

I think that's fair, if you want to be a part of the child's life then you should pay, but otherwise just sign your rights away then you don't have to pay it.

That is putting the incentives precisely backwards from where they should be.

ummm. i don't understand. so you're saying that a parent should still have visitation rights with their child even if they are contributing absolutely nothing to the child's life?

Yes oh, and I have talked with Mother's I have represented in custody fights within the last 48 hours who agree with with this sentiment. The father should be doing both, but if they're not paying financial support then at least they can be a part of their child's life.

[Badger]

Johnny Unitas is the greatest NFL quarterback of all time, not Tom Brady.

This is actually a very fair debate to have, especially considering how much the modern game favors QBs

I honestly have to say Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, and maybe Dan Marino could all be considered better than Brady. I hesitate on Marino. I do think Brady is better than Manning overall though.

Totally agree. And imagine if the Steelers had followed through on bringing Dan Marino on board like he dreamed of. God the things he could have accomplished....

[Badger]

The most recent Republican president who was not a racist was Dwight D Eisenhower.

Ford was racist?

And HW Bush?  The evidence I've seen is the opposite: that no Republican president in that time was a racist.  Nixon was a big supporter of civil rights legislation and was good friends with Sammy Davis, even if he used some racially insensitive language in his private life.  And Reagan and Bush 2 both hired blacks to high positions (Colin Powell, Condi Rice, Samuel Pierce, etc.)  It was also Bush 1 that appointed Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

Nixon hated Jewish people lmao. He was extremely racist.

No, he did not hate Jews.  He hired many Jews for his administration, including Ben Stein and Henry Kissinger.  And he developed a strong friendship with Sammy Davis.  The things he said on tape were no worse than the things said by LBJ, FDR, or Truman in their private conversations, nor was it worse than the casual racism and anti-Semitism of that time.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/2014/07/03/the-lie-of-richard-nixons-racism/
http://beta.nydailynews.com/archives/news/buddies-sammy-davis-jr-president-united-states-article-1.648866

And let's not forget these pictures:


http://egnorance.blogspot.com/2014/01/you-wont-see-this-picture-on-msnbc-abc.html

Listen to the tapes, dude. Pretty much everyone who was against him was a "ing Jew."

Oh and he let Sammie Davis hug him clearly the man held no racial prejudice whatsoever *eyes roll out of head*

Another thing for you kids to remember: Mayor Daley hurled similar slurs at Abe Ribicoff (who was Jewish) during the DNC in 1968, had numerous scandals as bad as Watergate or worse, and did everything he could to make life in Chicago a living nightmare for blacks.  Why is he a hero while Nixon is pure evil?  Could it be because Daley was a Democrat and Nixon a Republican?  I'm just asking...

No, I don't think anyone disputes Daley was a racist and an anti-semite either

[Badger]

Westboro Baptist Church is a false flag operation.

Please elaborate?

Fred Phelps did a lot of civil rights activism back in the 1960's. Because of that and his church's behaviour, there is a conspiracy theory that he is a liberal in deep cover trying to make the orthodox Christian position look bad.

I think that severely underestimates the idiosyncratic combinations of belief that are possible within American religious groups.

Not to mention it normalizes the behavior of far-right Christian Coalition type groups. Especially when they come out against Phelps protesting soldiers funerals.

[Badger]

Opposing abortion does not make a person 'pro life.'

This and Supporting abortion does not necessarily make a person pro choice.

I'm really not sure how that second line follows.

[Badger]

All country music recorded after 1990 is crap.

Off the top of my head, would you disagree that Dwight Yoakam had a number of great songs throughout the 90s?

[Badger]

Restaurants with different hours for dine-in and drive-thru should be required to advertise the dining room hours at least as prominently as the drive-through hours.

When I order food, I expect to be able to sit down and enjoy it there.

If a place is advertised as being open, and it turns out the drive-thru is open but the dining room isn't, I will leave and go someplace else (or do without) rather than use the drive-thru.

Word! Add I've always thought it should be a strict liability offense where buy it the business could be fined say $20 for any drive-thru order that doesn't have napkins in the bag.

[Badger]

I have two dogs, it's just kind of sad how a lot of people here would put their dog's lives over a person's. I love my dogs, but besides for the worst of the worst of people, I always would put a person's life over either of my dog's, including every person on this forum. Humans are more valuable than any animal, those are just my values. Of course the broken clock is right twice a day, but that's my generally rule of thumb. One of the most terrifying moments of my life was when a half pit got on top of me, it did not attack or anything, but I never felt closer to death.

So you hate an entire breed over the actions of a (most likely) poorly bred mutt that didn't actually harm you?

I almost lost my left leg because of a dog attack, but unlike you, rather than hate something I didn't know, I educated myself and ended up with dogs that I would be willing to do anything to ensure that they live happy, healthy lives.

Holy $hit! What happened?

[Badger]

I have two dogs, it's just kind of sad how a lot of people here would put their dog's lives over a person's. I love my dogs, but besides for the worst of the worst of people, I always would put a person's life over either of my dog's, including every person on this forum. Humans are more valuable than any animal, those are just my values. Of course the broken clock is right twice a day, but that's my generally rule of thumb. One of the most terrifying moments of my life was when a half pit got on top of me, it did not attack or anything, but I never felt closer to death.

So you hate an entire breed over the actions of a (most likely) poorly bred mutt that didn't actually harm you?

I almost lost my left leg because of a dog attack, but unlike you, rather than hate something I didn't know, I educated myself and ended up with dogs that I would be willing to do anything to ensure that they live happy, healthy lives.

Holy $hit! What happened?

Happened 4 years ago (almost exactly, actually, by a few days). Roommate I lived with had a dog that was aggressive and was working on "training" it. They had the dog loose in the house and didn't tell me, so when I came home and opened the door the dog was on my leg almost instantly. The original injury was a bite wound down to the muscle, and despite getting medical treatment the day of the incident and keeping it clean, it still got infected very badly (common for most animal bites), and required two surgeries, in which the surgeon even provided a statement to my lawyer that I was close to losing my leg because of how bad it was.

That's awful! Despite our differences I'm genuinely glad you healed.

On a related note, and I'm going to preface this by saying that I don't have an opinion so much as I'm playing Devil's Advocate and genuinely conflicted. Leaving aside gross overreaches of authority such as Exterminating pitbulls, or frankly even requiring them to be subject to hire legal scrutiny like Ohio I used to do for example, just in terms of owning raising pitbulls can there be an argument made because so many assholes have as you noted bread so many of the breed for generations for explicit dog fighting, which makes the dog of more Violet dog in general, that pit bulls are buying large - this is a terrible choice of word but for lack of a better one I can think of at the moment - - cursed?

Again, I'm not talking about Exterminating the dogs and setting up camps like Dogchau ( see what I did there?) As Bagel seems to suggest. It's just in my own personal experience I've seen too many of my worst clients owning pets and I damn well know that they're not doing them out of a sense of rescuing dogs. I guarantee every single one of them, understanding my clients tend to be not good people by and large albeit with exceptions, own the dog if not outright for dog fighting then certainly because the dog is aggressive and they want something to project toughness and slash work attack any so-called trespassers who might get near their stash.

Long Meandering question, but I think you get the point. Thoughts?

[Badger]

Control of the Senate will probably hinge on Mississippi this cycle. McDaniel is gaining on Hyde-Smith and could blow it like Roy Moore. Not to mention Espy managed to do pretty well with whites in his district (highest he got was 40% of white voters) and is more of a conservative Democrat.

If Alabama could vote blue, Mississippi could definitely do it.

Not a prayer. Whites in Mississippi are even less elastic than Alabama whites, if that's even conceivably possible. McDaniel is a crazy sob just like Roy Moore, but let's be frank about it if Roy moore didn't have the pedophilia and sexual assault scandal he wouldn't have closely lost to Doug Jones. And third there's just no conceivable way Mississippi is going to allow Democratic control of the Senate even if it means electing a wackadoodle, even by Mississippi standards, like McDaniel. Hell, short of some Scandal as similarly bad as Moore's cropping up with McDaniel, which I give at least at one and five or one-in-four chance of occurring because he seems exactly the kind of guy to pull that kind of gross stuff just like Roy Moore, Mississippi wouldn't elect Espy over him even if control of the Senate didn't hinge on it.

[Badger]

New Jersey Tossup sounds like an extremely lewd. gross sex act.

Does it involve whipped cream, graham crackers, and a prostate massage?  If yes where do I sign up?

Far worse. It involves a whipped prostate, a massage from a guy named Graham, and his cream crackers.

[Badger]

"Mr. Brightside" and "Shut Up and Dance" are better than any of The Beatles' songs.

(Those are my token two favorite mainstream songs you'll likely hear at a club.)

That isn't a bad or unpopular take, that is a declaration of raw unadulterated evil and bad taste combined.

[Badger]

If Bernie Sanders runs for President in 2020, there will be a noticeable "Never Bernie" movement in the Democratic primaries.

You're probably right.

[Badger]

"Asians vote Democrat because the GOP is anti-science" is pretty racist when you think about it.

Where do you hear this being said?

There were a couple of threads on the Presidential Election Trends board a while back about the Asian vote with answers like that.

That did indeed happen a more accurate way of stating this, which gets to the heart of the matter much better, would be: " college-educated individuals, particularly those with postgraduate education, have turned sharply against the Republican party in recent years due to its perceived "anti-science" policies. This has intern particularly affected voting habits among asian-americans who have overall higher levels of college and postgraduate education levels."

[Badger]

The "name recognition" thing is just an excuse for progressives to continue to be in denial about Joe Biden.

Presidents Lieberman and Giuliani would like to have a word with you...

Nice to try to apply the past results of different people in different situations instead of saying anything about the year and person in question.

" you were the one who made the comparison, senator...."

[Badger]

I think the 1965 immigration act was the worst mistake this country ever made. Why change our culture and fundamentally change the make up of a country that is successful?

You could have said that just as easily in 1865, or even 1835, and been just as wrong then.