VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
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User ID: 64
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
18d ago
Nobody has argued about embryonic stem cell research in a while. Although we have had left-coded arguments about HeLa cell line research.
Younger commenters seem to consistently under overestimate how long the South has been "Deep Red" territory: the legacy of the Southern Democrats held on at the state level well into the '90s. I am frequently amused at local Blue commenters in my Red state complaining about (perceived Red) state laws and policies that were actually enacted by the Blue team 40 years ago.
Was Manchin the last of that breed? He just left office this year.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
20d ago
Under a very loose definition of "ethnic cleansing", the IDF forcing Jews out of Gaza in the 2005 withdrawal (in some cases unwillingly) fits the definition, but is hardly the central example you're looking for.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
25d ago
A brief search suggests that the average Democrat in the House is two years older than the average Republican. And the last 8 members of Congress to die in office have been Democrats.
Although it's quite possible those numbers are pretty dynamic and shift with major elections though: I couldn't trivially find a time series.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
8d ago
it is the natural geopolitical state of Judea to be in the Persian orbit.
This is a very particular view of history that completely discounts the centuries the territory of Judea was held by Greece, Rome, or Babylon (probably missing a few). If anything, it is the natural state of Judea to be fought over by adjacent great powers.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
26d ago
It would be 2000 cruise missiles a day for three weeks before there was any kind of landing attempt.
And the presumed response looks like 2000 anti-ship missiles (or pre-placed torpedos) denying navigation to the entire strait, plus long-range anti-ship missiles used to declare a blockade of Chinese ports (see the Black Sea, but with potentially less regard for continued commercial traffic). Which isn't to say that would work out either, but the idea that Taiwan's defenses would crumble immediately like Iran's have isn't a guarantee either.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
12hr ago
Gatsby his way into the world’s elite
I do think that a reasonable intelligence agency might want to get into the social circles of a Gatsby character just for networking purposes, even if they weren't involved in the "mysteriously acquired fortune" part. And if they were open about the affiliation, it's not impossible to imagine Epstein a Gatsby character bragging about the contacts as a mark of social status (possibly to the consternation of agents trying to act quietly). Or that the "I have friends in the CIA" was quite grossly exaggerated from the truth: it's even possible someone else lied to him about such an affiliation and he ran with it.
That said, I don't have a strong idea on what actually went down in the Epstein affair, I just think it's important to consider all plausible avenues before jumping to conclusions.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
11d ago
And artillery shells being depleted is a real issue against China, the logistics here are sort of fungible, and spending a lot of resources resupplying Ukraine is going to demand we replace that (we have to be prepared to fight more than just China, a military's job isn't only to prepare for the most obvious threat), and the resources that go into replacing those assets, plus their losses, will eat up resources that could go into the Pacific.
This seems plausible, but there is a claim the opposite direction that the Ukraine conflict gives the US and its allies cover to invest heavily in war materiel production while still notionally in a time of peace without large domestic or foreign suspicion about warmongering or wasteful spending. In 1941 the US benefited heavily from having already tooled up for lend-lease production and broadly expecting to get dragged into the conflict eventually. Designs for aircraft and tanks that would only get fielded later in the war were in development, and Iowa's keel was laid before Pearl Harbor.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
21d ago
I find it somewhat amusing that the US has state-run education, and we regularly talk about how the $17k spent annually on the median K-12 student is too low (but is still higher than peer nations). But healthcare is (mostly) privately run, and we spend more than peer countries and in this case it's obvious that we should save by switching to a more centrally-run model. I'm not sure those positions really square with each other.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
25d ago
"what is a woman?"
I will (weakly) defend her non-response on the basis that SCOTUS are the constitutional Platonic philosopher kings, to whom this sort of seems-trivial-but-actually-has-subtlety question like "is the ACA fine for not having insurance a tax?" (whether or not you agree on the depth of this particular question I think the category still stands), and that generally justices are discouraged from discussing potential cases during confirmation hearings.
That said, I quite likely disagree with her answer to the question regardless.
Yes, if you want to run the world on solar cells and batteries, you need two ramp industrial capacity, hard, for at least the next decade.
Does this account for shifting heating loads in northern climates from combustion to electric heat pump? I think what you're talking about works for the Sun Belt, but I am not convinced that, for example, Sweden, can ever keep its citizens from freezing in winter (when it's dark most of the time, the sun is low, and frequently cloudy) without like 3-4 more orders of magnitude battery storage than currently exist. Current storage is on the order of what, grid-minutes? It's not going to adequately transfer energy from summer to winter, and I honestly don't see a viable non-carbon approach there without (1) superconductors solving the transmission problem, (2) evacuating northern latitudes (lol), or (3) nuclear and maybe wind picking up the tab all winter.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
4d ago
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
6d ago
Basically every other western nation manages to spend equivalent or less amounts of healthcare than the USA, and has equivalent or better outcomes.
Observably, this statement is (still arguably, but commonly presented as) true if you replace "healthcare" with "education". But the typical solutions presented by the left are in the opposite direction there: few are suggesting we adopt European (or more extreme, Korean or Japanese) norms in education and cut funding. Is education different, or is this just a case of "conveniently, this evidence supports the action I already wanted taken"?
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
12d ago
Christianity is particularly attuned to women’s petty intrasexual concerns, with its emphasis on female promiscuity.
I think this is far more complicated a topic than a single sentence can do justice to, but the Christian tradition, as much as it would like to attribute everything to Jesus, wasn't written in stone at the Ascension or Pentecost. Most of the "emphasis on female promiscuity" parts I can think of are from Paul, and were written a bit later.
I'd also point to the context of family matters in Rome at the time: Augustus rather famously enacted some policies that encouraged fidelity and "family values" before Jesus was born (and were continued on and off again with later emperors), and it's difficult to fully extract the existing Roman cultural context from the Christianity that took off there.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
19d ago
I think Putin's stated goals of destroying the idea (the meme as it were) of a distinct Ukrainian identity is, under the more expensive definitions, considered "genocide", but I will concede that it's a much less central example than "industrially kill them all" or just "evict them from their lands and ignore the obvious implications" that people would typically point to in WWII.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
20d ago
Gaza also bans abortion and IIRC limits birth control pretty heavily, in addition to promulgating pro-natal memes, even if they are "eventually outnumber the [redacted]."
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
21d ago
I'd be cautious there that a middle option is technically possible: Obama ordered airstrikes on Syria against ISIL, and there have been American boots on the ground there since (unclear on exact deployment dates and current status), but they've remained in a limited capacity as such without being a full-blown invasion a la 2003. It's possible the exact wording of your prediction may matter quite a bit.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
1d ago
Just like beards, they used to be non-conformist now they're common enough.
Hadrian has entered the chat.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
7d ago
Conceptually, I think the choice of "grifting" has a fairly limited cap on median outcomes. Limited cases might exist, but it's hard to sell indefinite affirmative action or reparations for a minority doing better than the median. I can't see democratic will supporting that for long, and it's unpopular even when isolated exceptions come up: Elizabeth Warren, or affirmative action for Obama's kids applying to college.
Chinese-Americans seem to have taken the "work hard and naturally do better than the median" option, which I think sounds better if it's available.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
19d ago
This would be an interesting case if some state decided it wasn't going to recognize marriage at all.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
19d ago
It missed its chance to be the one and only 10th Amendment precedent.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
19d ago
I wonder if that's how presidents had to be in the past, and the rest of us reading the newspaper listening to radio watching on TV following social media real-time feeds just weren't as knowledgeable about those realities until recently.
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
22d ago
The modern theory of deterrence may look more like identifying the humps that disrupt the slippery slope, and trying to beat your opponent back to one of those humps but no further, versus... trying to push your humps as far up the slope as possible?
I think the term in the literature you're looking for is "escalation dominance."
VoxelVexillologist
Multidimensional Radical Centrist
11d ago
I think your idea here is plausible, but I have trouble seeing how you'd isolate nature from nurture here for these axes without some industrial-scale twin studies that seem implausible.
The "leads to genocide" observation is hardly exclusive to white people, though. See also: Japan/China in WWII, Rwanda, any number of sectarian feuds in the third world. Realistically, it seems like it was largely the norm or at least not uncommon among almost any group with the power to do it until largely-European philosophy eventually decided it was a morally repugnant idea (to which I'd agree).
Sometimes it seems like "genocide" only applies if European-descended folks (er, Volks) are doing it, otherwise it's just "sparkling ethnic cleansing" or something.
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