$ jlc (10,317)

Ha! Good morning, johnpe!

Jan

Excellent article. Thanks for the link.

Jan

Oh. Wow. I did not know one could do that. Reading now...

Jan

But on June 13th the NY Times also published another article - an editorial supported a new view of Environmentalism: http://rationaloptimist.com/blog/eco-mod...

It used to be that Climate Skeptics could not get published at all. Now, people (and even politicians - gasp!) are beginning to turn around.

Jan

This is something of an odd article. The first half of it seems to say that if you believe in [list topics] then you are mind controlled. But there is no evidence to suggest that this is so other than the writer's bias that [list topics] are innately objectionable...and therefore if you believe in them you must have been psychologically conditioned to do so.

What about a person who believes in those topics on their own? This does not seem to be included in the writer's universe.

About halfway through, some good points are made about the freedom to be politically incorrect without legal repercussions. I agree that one should be able to express that one does not agree with transgenderism (to use one of her examples) without having gym membership revoked or being fired from your job. But I also am aware that someone who is transgender has had a lifetime of being rejected in those respects, and that is not right either. Freedom is freedom.

I do not agree that a person who expresses a particular belief or opinion should be immune to shunning or rejection as a personal and individual choice of the people around them. You opens your mouth; you takes your chances.

Jan

I agree: This is about control and not about water. It is important that there be no desalination plants and no solution.

Jan

Aw drat! I am going to have to agree with RonJohnson. I LIKE Pam Geller, but what RonJohnson is saying is that (a) he does not 'like' her as a personal reaction, (b) he thinks that she is voluntarily putting herself at risk, and (c) she should not be protected by the gov out of tax money.

Sigh. I think all of those things are straight on.

I like Pam Geller (personal reaction) but I agree with (b) and (c). On the other hand, I wish that hundreds of people would sponsor "Draw a Cartoon of Mo" contests - and that each of them would lure a couple of fanatics out of the woodwork to be shot by off-duty heroic cops. Very, Darwinian, that.

Where I do not agree with RonJohnson is that 'only two' fanatics is not something that we should be concerned about. If there were a "Draw a cartoon of Pope Frank" contest and 'only two' Catholic fanatics tried to kill the organizer it would outrage everyone, including the Catholic Church (and Frank!).

I think I donated to her in the past, but I am going to look up her site again and throw a few bucks in her direction to defray a bit of the 30K.

Jan, mouth=money

Good point. The Special Services teams in the Middle East lobbied for women to be permitted to join in part because they discovered that there were things they could not find out/ places they could not go because they were male - they needed female team members.

We do need cultural and linguistic Middle Easterners in our police force (and some of them will be Islamic). More, though, we need the police force itself to increase in quality.

Jan

Wow. Great video. I wish everyone went through training like that - of their own volition, not by draft. I bet that, when she goes home, if the dolt ex-boyfriend tries to approach her again, she throws him through a wall. Hmmm...maybe there will be a sequel video?

I went through Basic in the 70's. I learned to become a military 'automation'...not that it stuck for more than about 10 seconds. The USAF did not let women handle guns in Basic at that time. Damn. I have done martial arts before and since that time.

It is going to make a tremendous difference in our society when women fight for freedom on the front lines. We have been able to vote for generations, but the other side of that coin is to earn that right in blood. Now that we are out there, we will come back as not-victims (which too many women still are).

Insofar as the admittedly sad story of the suicide: We are at fault as a culture. I hung around with WWII pilots (my dad's friends) when I was a kid. Many of them had been responsible for the death of hundreds or thousands of people. They had an ethic that allowed them to do this and not become monsters in their own minds; they came home as heroes.

I hope that the character in the video finds a tough and strong significant otter and has a happy life.

Jan, jog bra better than ace bandage (have done both)

Thank you for saying that, Herb. I agree.

Jan

I would add: please tell the STORY! I loath books that pretend to have a story but are patently a vehicle for expounding some theory or doctrine. I really do not need the philosophical equivalent of "Ray Gun Pete" spending 6 pages explaining his ray gun at me.

On the other hand, I love books that demonstrate a coherent philosophy of individual excellence and liberty and never preach a word.

Jan

I do think that Sword-of-Apollo (SoA) clearly defines appropriate "selfishness" as 'selfishness-minus-destruction'. But I think that you, mdant, have made the point that also occurred to me in reading his excellent essay: The 'range' of our perception of 'harm to others' is constrained by knowledge, advertency (for those folks who like neat words), and wisdom. (In spite of our self-name, Homo sapiens isn't really.)

If you draw a straight line between 'my self interest which has no intent to harm others' and my 'goal', and you lack perceptive qualities, then you will often end up running over other peoples' toes.

Jan

I do not know if it is a fact, it is just mine own observation. But to whatever percentage of people it applies, I too feel it is sad. (But they probably don't...which is sad too!)

Jan

I agree with you - including agreeing on what should not be talked about on the internet.

Jan, prudent...sometimes paranoid (only got one 'noid today - must'a misplaced the other one)

I am not surprised at the results of my estimate, strugatsky - I am surprised that folks are agreeing with me.

Jan

You might have had a better time with PaleoAnthropology!

Jan
(Even if you are not actually interested in PaleoA...it sounds like the Climate class was difficult to endure.)

Geeze. We sure watched a different video clip! (at least in our own minds.)

Jan
(And you will have to try a lot harder than that if you want to offend me.)

I am surprised at your answer. I expected that most of the people on this list would consider that if the people were 'raised right' they would be Randists.

Jan
(My prior comment was supposed to say >=50% of the human race.)

Which are all things the Communists thought too trivial to worry about...strange how history actually works.

I think that >= of the human race would freely choose to live in a socialism. Any comprehensive political plan that does not take this into account is doomed to revision and reversion.

Jan

We are surrounded by 'justifiable crimes' because many of the things we customarily do have been made illegal. We live in a society where any of us can be arrested at any moment, because - for certain - SOMETHING we own or do is illegal.

Jan

But Lenin was not right - that seed uprooted itself: for bluejeans and walkmans.

Jan

Have you read Griffin's Black Like Me? If methoxsalen were not considered a class 1 carcinogen, it would be a remarkable and amusing solution to the racial problem: Decide what race you want to be for the next few months, the same way you can dye your hair a new color. (That sounds a bit confusing: methoxsalin is not a dye - it actually turns your skin black upon exposure to UV.)

Then, anyone can reveal their 'inner black'

Jan

Unfortunately, I think that gun opinion will continue to pendulum. I am watching - it may be a good indicator for the feeling of the country as a whole. Perhaps in the future we will be able to better predict how an election will go by what the % gun sentiment is.

Jan

I watched the first few minutes. Perhaps the rest was better, but I did not feel like wading though unfunny anti-gun rhetoric to get to the possible funny parts.

Jan

I so like that. But I am not good at math (and I am very grateful for spellchecker).

Jan