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Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Family Values posted:

The main problem with the Senate is that it exists. Abolishing it is the only acceptable reform.

The main problem with the House is that there are too few representatives. Restore the rep:constituent ratio so that theres more interaction between them. I want my US Rep campaigning door to door.



Neither of those is as important or would do as much as fixing money and FPTP voting.

Good luck getting any of these.
Is there any practical reason that the house is being kept to its current size? Do they just not want to rebuild the building to have more offices and stuff?

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Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Trabisnikof posted:

Changing the number is an opportunity for political manipulation and neither side is confident enough that they'll win out to give it a try when they are in charge.
You mean, different than the manipulation that happens every time the redistrict, like they did a few years ago?

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

KomradeX posted:

Question to Texas goons, why is Keep Austin Weird racist?
I dunno if it's related, but I have learned not to talk about Austin being a nice place (which I have only heard secondhand anyway) with Texans, lest they interpret that as me saying the whole rest of the state is poo poo.

Samurai Sanders fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Oct 6, 2014

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

SubponticatePoster posted:

Funny story: some competitive shooting used to be open (men and women shot together). Then women started outshooting the men and all of a sudden it was decided that shooting should be segregated. So now these particular competitions have a men and women's division. This was at very high levels, too.
I've sometimes wondered about this regarding all kinds of competitions that are not based on upper body strength but are segregated anyway.

edit:

Fried Chicken posted:

In not lovely news, the SCOTUS has refused to hear all 7 appeals on marriage equality rulings, letting the lower court rulings stand. That's 13 states that will have legalized gay marriage in a matter of days
Wow, that's pretty...not lovely.

Samurai Sanders fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Oct 6, 2014

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

AreWeDrunkYet posted:

This is the same reason things like chess tournaments are segregated, right? Noncompetitive competitions are unsurprisingly not interesting, so it makes perfect sense to split off groups if one is significantly better.
Why would women be inherently better or worse at chess (or shooting)?

edit: I mean, not counting situations where women historically haven't had access to the best instructors and stuff.

Samurai Sanders fucked around with this message at 18:15 on Oct 7, 2014

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug
Unrelated to anything but how did the word "check" come to mean slamming your body into someone? When I check my students' papers for errors I sometimes want to slam my body into them, but I have to remember that it's a completely different meaning...or is it?

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Joementum posted:

Quote of the day, “Obama doesn’t want America to believe that we’re exceptional. He wants us to be just like everybody else, and if Africa is suffering from Ebola, we ought to join the group and be suffering from it, too. That’s his attitude.” ~ Phyllis Schlafly
Yeah, and I'm a terrible person too for thinking we are just like everybody else.

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug
This really bugs me. Which one is it? Are you admitting you were wrong that women should just trust the system to get equal pay, or were you "inarticulate", thus having the right idea but you expressed it the wrong way? It can't be both.

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug
Those methods to keep whites inside the city seem pretty extreme. Do economic carrots like lower property taxes or whatever not work?

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Joementum posted:

Quote of the day, "We don't have a jobs problem in this state. We have a work problem." ~ Scott Walker
So he's saying that there is a worker shortage? Like, negative unemployment? Is that a thing that happens?

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Fried Chicken posted:

Happy Columbus Day people. This was going to be the OP until I saw the current one.


People here in Hawaii aren't so hot on Columbus Day. I wonder why?

edit: good thing Captain Cook doesn't have a holiday.

Samurai Sanders fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Oct 14, 2014

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Shbobdb posted:

The goal is to reduce pre-marital sex. And if you look at the statistics, that actually happens with abstinence only education. I think it is only a fraction of a percent but I'll be generous and say it is a couple of percent. Whatever it is, it is absolute and significant.

The downsides are substantial increase in teenage pregnancy and STDs. But if what you want is to cause an absolute decrease in pre-marital sex, then it is a success. The increase in teen pregnancy and STDs? Well, they weren't going to be saved anyway. Sinners gonna sin, yo.
Wait, where does the teen pregnancy come from if not pre-marital sex? Are high school students marrying each other like crazy in Republican controlled areas?

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Dr.Zeppelin posted:

I think he's saying that the abstinence-only case has fewer instances of pre-marital sex overall but more teen pregnancies because of the much higher conception rate.
Oh, I get it, from not using condoms and stuff. It's so hard for me to imagine a situation where teens wouldn't know about the whole condom thing but I guess it can happen in the right environment.

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Caros posted:

Yeah, you mostly just have to remember that for a lot of these kids, sex ed consists of being told about the waterfall of passion that leads to the whirlpool of sin. Condom use is not exactly encouraged.
Yeah, that's alien to me. In my high school there was a basket of condoms nailed to the outside of the nurse's office door.

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Doctor Butts posted:

Our sex ed was a blast. Tons of giggling, afterschool specials, a class full of condoms and bananas, and a generous round of 'find the cancer in the fake boobie/testicle' for all!
Yeah, this was my sex ed class too and it was a good time. The very first thing the teacher did was make a master list of every single sex related euphemism any student knew, and explained their correspondence to medical terminology. I pity the students who didn't get this kind of thing because of political stuff far beyond their reach.

edit: it was also one of the first times I realized that teachers were people too and not just a talking thing at the front of the classroom.

Samurai Sanders fucked around with this message at 04:43 on Oct 14, 2014

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Kitfox88 posted:

Mine was 'Don't have sex, condoms are worthless, birth control will make you sterile.'

Rural Pennsylvania. :allears:

EDIT: Shbobdb did it better
Statistically, how many students get that kind of sex ed and how many get the kind me and Dr Butts got?

edit: other important things I learned
- boobs are awesome
- masturbation is awesome, for boys and girls
- no, you cannot break your boner (this was thanks to the anonymous question drop box)
- when women enjoy sex it's considered bad by society but this is wrong
- as long as you don't have unprotected sex with them, there's no reason to shun people who have STDs

Samurai Sanders fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Oct 14, 2014

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Good Citizen posted:

And yes you can break your boner
I have been lied to?!

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

SedanChair posted:

What did you think, you could hang a kettlebell on it without any consequences?
I think the question was interpreted as being related to either sleeping on it funny or masturbation, not daggering or ridiculous displays of cocksmaship.

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

quote:

I'm curious how do anti immigration Aussies justify the fact that white people have lived in Australia for a little over 200 years?
What's interesting to me is to hear Japanese-Americans here in Hawaii doing this. Any immigrant group that arrived at the same time as them = ok, any immigrant that arrived afterwards = lazy good-for-nothings destroying Hawaii. And we're just talking about a span of a few generations at most.

edit: dunno what their opinions are about native Hawaiians though.

Samurai Sanders fucked around with this message at 17:12 on Oct 14, 2014

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Kiwi Ghost Chips posted:

That ability is pretty universal :ssh:
To me, it's not even an ability, it's just the brain we are all born with. The ability, which takes training, is to make all the different thoughts and opinions in your head consistent with each other.

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

computer parts posted:

That wouldn't help a doctor that only (or primarily) sees wealthy clients, for example. Same if you were primarily caring for seniors (because the uninsured rate of 65+ is like ~2%).

The uninsured rate right now in the US is about 13%, and that's not evenly distributed.

e: 2011-2012 data (when it was ~15% on average):



Uninsured % (darker = worse).
Huh, why is the west so comparatively high?

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug
Well, as a social drug, I can understand that for many people basically every aspect of its presentation is important to having a good time with it. It would be the same with alcohol or anything else.

Samurai Sanders fucked around with this message at 19:27 on Oct 19, 2014

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Mirthless posted:

I have to say I was a little surprised by the pro birth control stance. Seems they still haven't figured out that the whole "close our borders" = "we lose more votes from hispanics than we would from racists" thing though
The OTC birth control is so that they can get it to be not covered by health insurance, right?

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Mirthless posted:

Ah, insidious.
Yeah, their position on poor and minority women will not change I think, so everything they do should be viewed through that lens.

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

VikingofRock posted:

Remind me why everyday people need guns again?
Maybe our gun problems inside our country are just another expression of whatever drives our irresponsible use of military force around the globe. In other words, it's just who we are.

Samurai Sanders fucked around with this message at 01:25 on Oct 25, 2014

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug
I guess the US government recognized federal benefits for same sex marriage in six more states, bringing the total to 32. Any guesses about which state will be last to the (sometimes literal) party?

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Yawgmoft posted:

Don't count Missouri out yet.
Yeah, I know Mississippi will be one of the last, but I wondered if anyone knew if it would be THE last, or if there's some other state that is even more violently opposed to it.

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Raskolnikov38 posted:

Didn't a state almost ban all marriages trying to ban marriage? Because it's going to be that one.
You mean, they want to get the state government entirely out of the marriage business? That sounds awesome, sign me up.

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Joementum posted:

Texas also won't give you a driver's license if your birth certificate says you have two moms.
Has anyone asked why that is not ok but (presumably) having only one parent is?

That's the thing: who is seriously going to argue that having two parents, regardless of if they are weirdos by your standards, is worse than having one?

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

PupsOfWar posted:

Much of the stigma around children of same-sex couples is built on backward fuckers' assumption that a kid with same-sex parents will inevitably turn out gay, regardless of how hard they try to disguise it as championing the Nuclear Family or whatever.

Whenever you hear "a child raised by a gay couple won't be properly socialized" or "a child raised by a gay couple will grow up without any appreciation for traditional gender roles", substitute "a child raised by a gay couple will be initiated into the decadent mystery-cult of queerness"

Most policies that target gay parentage are misguided attempts to cut off the Gay Agenda's pipeline of new recruits, with some room left over for people who are genuinely baffled by the idea that a child can have a functional upbringing without a daddy to take them squirrel-hunting and a mommy to put band-aids on their owies. People who are in it for the latter reason will likely rail against (and attempt to legislate against) other alternative familial arrangements as well, but it is harder to drum up support for things like "ban divorce" or "force all fathers to be ruggedly masculine and aloof, all mothers to be nurturing but vulnerable"
One thing I've wondered in this area is, what do such people think of parents who did everything right, who were not in an environment where their kids were exposed to gays at all, and yet the kids still turn out gay?

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

My Imaginary GF posted:

"Theys boy just ain't right."
Well yeah, but I assume they have to stop short of thinking God made him gay? Where is the middle ground between some environmental thing made him that way, and he was born that way?

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Shbobdb posted:

God doesn't make anyone gay, but he does give us all our cross to bear. Is it fair that some of us are born poor while others are born rich? Obviously not! And what about people who are born crippled or retarded? Rich, poor, normal, crippled, retarded, whatever, through their own cross everyone can come to Jesus. Like the gays. Some people say it is a choice, and some people do choose sin. Most people who sin choose to sin. But some people are born with a predisposition towards a certain kind of sinning. So what?

That is their cross to bear. And once they overcome their homosexuality they can come to know God's love, true love.
That sounds both internally consistent and horrifying.

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Josh Lyman posted:

I don't watch much live TV, but during today's football in Atlanta, I've only seen Republican ads for Senator and governor. Not sure why the Democrats are being so stingy.
I assume they decided that football is what Republicans watch, at least in that area. I was just reading an article about how it's divided up like that.

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug
Does anyone have the source of that imagine? Tineye has got nothing.

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Jerry Manderbilt posted:

It's pretty loving hard to think of anything from a McJob that transfers to anything else, besides maybe "learning not to complain while you get poo poo all over".
Actually, I can think of situations where someone was so sheltered and pampered as a child that working in close quarters with new people (especially people of a different ethnicity from you), or even just having a schedule to your day that you had to follow or else you get yelled at, would be extremely valuable for them. I don't know how many people like that would end up working at McD's though.

Samurai Sanders fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Oct 28, 2014

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Mo_Steel posted:

Some people get a sense of empathy for retail workers out of it too. If you went through college paid by a benefactor and straight into a 9-5 Mon-Fri job working in an office you might have no concept of just how much it loving sucks to pull a 4 am shift every Sunday and working on virtually every holiday and dealing with the most insufferable customers you can possibly imagine routinely for such a lovely wage. It can lead to treating other retail employees like actual human beings when you're a customer instead of being indignant because you had to wait two whole minutes to get through the checkout, and potentially inform your political views.
Yeah, that's for sure. Also, it informs you about whether they really are between a rock and a hard place, and when they are just being lazy.

Anyway, experience is experience. Even if it is useless to future jobs, it builds you as a person.

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

AmiYumi posted:

I didn't think the de facto positions of the internet were "Men's Rights" and "child porn"?
It's also like 90% English language, and Western. What's their male-female and white-nonwhite ratio like, anyway?

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

PupsOfWar posted:

It is true.

Go ask any white person what they think has happened to crime rates over the past 20 years (they will tell you that crime rates have grown exponentially since The Age of Reagan, to the point that America is one loose lugnut from being a Mad Max dieselpunk wasteland).
What's weird is that unless I am mistaken, Hollywood actually has reflected the difference between the 70s and 80s, when street crime was heading up with no end in sight, and now. I can't think of any popular Dirty Harry type movie series that started since crime started its decline. Yet, people still haven't caught on that things really are going in a different direction now.

Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

Wolfsheim posted:

To be fair people pretty much take whatever message they want from media even when it's trying to make the opposite point. See: people talking about how Mad Men is great because it shows how good it was when men were men and dames were dames, except the show is mostly about how men were self-loathing pieces of poo poo and women were second-class citizens.

Also every war movie ever made.
Yeah, I grew up looking critically at movies, so it's really weird to come across people who somehow miss things that I don't even consider subtext, like that maybe FMJ wasn't actually saying that the Vietnam war was awesome.

But anyway, that's still beside my point. Between the 80s and now, Hollywood action movies have shifted away from street thugs being the villains, and towards foreign terrorists and stuff. I THOUGHT that was done in response to Americans realizing that street thugs weren't going to drive the country to ruin or anything, but apparently many people still think that.

Samurai Sanders fucked around with this message at 18:18 on Nov 1, 2014

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Samurai Sanders
Nov 4, 2003

Pillbug

computer parts posted:

No, what they were talking about was how the military (as in, not the CIA but the actual US Army and co) will lend you their equipment to use in films, but they have to sign off on the film's material, so you don't make a movie that makes them look bad.

Fortunately(?) the advent of CGI seems to have made this much less of a factor than previous years.
Yeah, I heard about this first when I think Independence Day came out, the air force refused to give their support because the movie talked about Area 51. I assume a similar thing would happen to a movie that proposed that maybe terrorists are people too.

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