Sociotard

It's hard to make that argument though, because we have these darned monkey brains, and "human intent" changes everything, especially with a "human from another tribe" multiplier. So the flu kills several thousand people a year, and no body cares, because there aren't humans behind it. Traffic accidents kill even more, but there generally isn't intent. But if we hear that 10 people were killed by another human, especially if the killer was an outsider killing people like us, that is something that we'll spend months thinking about.

That's actually a white lion that has been recolored.

This is difficult. "Steal vehicle + use it to kill people" seems to be the new top game plan for low-level terrorists. It's simple enough that it doesn't take training, it can be done as a single cell, and it's pretty hard to deter. I mean, you can put up barricades to some degree, but it can't ever be enough. Difficult indeed.

Vox had an article about how impulsive this seems: http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/4/7/15217492/trump-syria-foreign-policy The best bit was when they replayed his tweets from 2013, telling Obama to not meddle in Syria. And Obama did not meddle. Well, just a little. But less than what Donald just did.

I was, and I stand by it. She has a well established history of hawkishness. She advised Obama to step into that Syrian quagmire early and more deeply, and I'm glad she was ignored. I am a fairly radical military isolationist. I want a foreign policy that actively avoids conflict, whenever possible. I had a tough choice this election, between a predictable hawk who had signs of being competent in her hawkishness, and an incompetent who swayed from extreme sabre rattling to isolationism with a frequency best reserved for gamma rays. I voted Clinton, but uneasily. I have fantasies about getting someone in office I can really get behind, but my countrymen are, frankly, so bloodthirsty I don't think I'll ever get it.

The journal Science is not an objective periodical. Congress said so. http://www.snopes.com/2017/03/29/smith-journal-science-not-objective/

There was a bit in Vox about how Trump is behind on several things that he could do relatively easily. He'd promised to get China labeled a currency negotiator, and to start renegotiating NAFTA. He hasn't started either of those. That . . . isn't really a complaint, I guess. If the President wants to just coast by and not do anything nation-changing for the next four years . . . I'm fine with that. I'm fine with no Trade Wars.

That is a water heater, left out for garbage. Still, something heartbreaking about it not responding.

Congratulations on the low bodycount.

The Whanganui River in NZ has been accorded the legal rights and responsibilities of a person. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/90488008/whanganui-river-gets-the-rights-of-a-legal-person

Some of those might take care of regular gerrymandering, but not the self gerrymandering. When people say they are sick of living in a place with bad mass transit options and move to Oregon, they make Oregon more liberal and their own state more conservative. Heck, if that even happens in state (moving from a rural place in Oregon to Portland), even a disinterested mathematician would pop out a bunch of safe districts. So, the real problem is figuring out how to heal the Urban Rural divide. I do not see any politicians, from any party or level of government, talking about this. I'm actually curious, posters not in the US, do you see a big Urban/Rural divide as a driver of politics in your countries?

I was kind of amused by these two contradictory stories. Or rather, the contradictory interpretations of real-world data Republicans are in trouble: (TLDR, the country is trending to be a bit less white, and the Republican Party has not kept up.) http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-end-of-a-republican-party/ Democrats are in trouble: (TLDR, the country is self gerrymandering. The Democrats may win the popular vote, but that doesn't matter, especially in the Senate and White House) http://www.nbcnews.com/specials/democrats-left-in-the-lurch

Things I didn't know existed: Bunny hopping competitions.

Boy, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) just doesn't know when to quit. There are conservative calls to give him a strong primary challenge, so that's good. http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/323867-steve-king-hispanics-and-the-blacks-will-be-fighting-each-other

He got tired of poker?

Hmmm, shedding the "osphere" suffix . . . Qlipoth appears to refer to Kabbalistic representations of evil. Wikipedia says they're obstacles to holiness. Basically, Evil-o-sphere.

They're all ABBA now. They're trying to prevent their people from launching earworms on the world at large.

Evidently Sweden is perturbed by both Russia's belligerence and US isolationism. So, while the draft went away in 2010, they're bringing it back. Not just on paper, as it is in the US, either. They plan to conscript 4000 people.

I think you're thinking of Gila Monster spit. see Exenatide. Still . . .

Worth watching on the subject

Step one, got the deficit numbers from the White House website. Step two, made an excel sheet that made the 'derivative'. Should I just put up the whole sheet?

Yes, while Republicans talk a good game for reducing deficits, the best option for that is Divided government. Just look at the first derivative of the deficit (that is, whether it gets bigger or smaller year to year) for Republican, Democrat, and Divided (in Constant 2009 dollars) First Derivative All, Deficit Constant; United, Deficit Constant; Opposed, Deficit Constant; D Only Deficit Constant; R Only Deficit Constant Count; 76; 28; 35; 21; 7 Min; -953.2; -346.3; -292.8; -330.8; -346.3; 20%; -87.8; -79.6; -89.6; -74.6; -289.6 40%; -21.6; -29.2; -13.0; -27.1; -41.8 Median; 2.5; -18.3; 5.5; -14.1; -28.8 Mean; -11.4; -18.1; 14.0; -4.3; -59.5 60%; 41.6; 3.2; 41.9; 18.5; 7.0 80%; 93.9; 81.0; 98.7; 74.1; 79.1 In some related charts, you can see that United Republican governments really do value smaller government with lighter taxes (measured by smaller revenues and less spending), while United Democratic governments do go for more taxes and bigger governments. But, the Republicans don't cut spending enough to accommodate the cuts in taxes, so their deficits are bigger. EDIT: That ended poorly.

This administration has more leaks than a filmed prostitute party in a Moscow hotel room.

Baby panda wants to play