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Riotus's Waterfall RSS

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3 points

Whatever your stance is on Mill's utilitarianism reflects deeper questions of morality and ethics. It's almost a cheap out to say that what's best is what gives the most people happiness. Giving cocaine or anti-depressants to everyone might make everyone happy, but is that really what gives the best result? When slavery was acceptable, the majority of people thought that the cheap labor was a good idea even though it meant repressing individuals.

Studies have been done that show that people are happier when they are much better off when they are in a better situation than those around them. People making 100k a year feel happier living in neighborhoods where others make less than them than living in neighborhoods of millionaires. The thing that causes the greatest amount of happiness might be to give most of the money in a nation to 55% of people and to surround them with the poor 45%, but that doesn't make it fair or moral.

The real answer is to behave as you would like to behave. But it's better put in this case in the reverse. Don't treat people like you wouldn't want to be treated yourself. In Mill's terms, it shouldn't be what gives the most people the most happiness, but it should be what gives the least number of people the least unhappiness. That solves the problems of things like slavery and injustice for popular benefit.

1 point

Tina Fey is much more attractive. Sarah Palin has too much of that drawl and seems like she thinks she's more clever than she is. Tina Fey is always hot because she has the sexy librarian look. On top of that, she gets extra points for being funny.

Supporting Evidence: google pics of tina fey (images.google.com)
7 points

There is no clear case that McCain will reform the Republican party. He has voted consistently in line with President Bush, which shows he acts along the party lines.

His recent activity shows that he's not up for the position:

1. Forgetting where spain is, trying to bluff

2. Strange twitches and confusion during press conferences

3. Refusal to release medical records unless behind closed doors

2 points

Exactly. It's just another tool to give you some information about how closely your views align with the candidate's, not telling you who to vote for.

1 point

Citizens should be encouraged to vote and debate issues from childhood. Student government is supposed to form a basis for that, but not enough kids are involved in it to make an impact. If teachers let more decisions be made in committee by the students, and illustrated how decisions were made by regional and state governments, people might be more active as adults.

Not many people participate actively in local government, and when was the last time you contacted your congressman to let them know how you felt about an issue? Maybe through education, citizens would become more active in their local area.

1 point

The way that McCain tried to postpone the debates using the financial situation as an excuse to not have them right away shows that he's not ready. If he was ready, he wouldn't be worried about a couple hours of debate mixed in with his schedule. It's a bad sign for a presidential candidate when they can't handle more than one thing at a time.

Supporting Evidence: commentary about mccain postpone request (www.guardian.co.uk)
1 point

With the weakness in the US dollar we have right now, returning to the gold standard would require the US government to purchase gold to satisfy the foreign holders of American debt that would cash in some of their dollars for hard assets. That kind of demand would mean that the US would have all kinds of problems keeping the currency pegged to gold.

At the same time, the gold standard would limit the ability of the fed to control inflation through their control on the money supply. A deflationary currency makes it harder to come up with the money we need for the national budget, since dollars continue to be worth more, and the US government has to ensure there are enough pounds of gold to cover any new currency they mint.

On top of all of that, it would be a logistical nightmare to shift over to a different currency or to start propping up our current currency at a fair dollar to gold rate.

1 point

Basically, the change means that Palin won't get hard questions or have to stand up to any rebuttals Biden makes. This should be a fair, standard debate, because if she's elected as a Vice President, she won't get the world to give her handicaps because she's unfamiliar with politics and how to do the job she's elected to.

The change will make the debate less interesting and less of a true test of the two vice presidential candidates.

4 points

Statistics show that abstinence only education leads to risky behavior, while sex education informs and does not promote high risk activity. When abstinence only educated teens start having sex, they don't know how to use a condom, or even what the risks of unprotected sex are. Teens are going to have sex, they always have. We need to give them the right information so they can be informed when they make their decisions, rather than just guess about what works off of rumors and television.

Supporting Evidence: fact sheet on sex ed (www.advocatesforyouth.org)
3 points

Very hard to tell, and it depends a lot on consumer confidence. If people start getting freaked out and withdrawing money from everything, then more banks could fail causing a chain reaction. If our currency is destabilized too much, other countries would move away from it in world trade, further weakening it. That could cause a mass rush away from the dollar, throwing world markets into upheaval.

Probably more likely is that people are shaken up for a while, there are deals done to keep wall street alive, and in the long term, the situation stabilizes and keeps growing. Drops in stock markets tend to be a leading indicator of overall economy, so we'll probably have a slowdown for at least a bit. They also tend to clean out overenthusiasm and irrational pricing, so after the drop, we'll regain footing when people start behaving rationally again and buying when valuations are reasonable.

Supporting Evidence: stock market as leading predictor (www.econ.ilstu.edu)
3 points

Lots of politicians already have money from their previous jobs as lawyers or private businessmen. The problem would be situations like Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, who bought land, lobbied to build a highway near it, then sold it for three times what he bought it for when the highway bill went through.

Politicians will be smart enough that they'll find ways around the minimum wage pay if they wanted, but it would at least function as a reminder of what most Americans have to live on.

Supporting Evidence: Hastert land deal (blogs.abcnews.com)
1 point

The scientists have openly said that micro black holes might result from their research at the large hadron collider. Given our current understanding, they'll either burn themselves out extremely quickly through electrical interactions, or they won't be able to interact very much at all with earth matter. Other possibilities they mention are considered extremely unlikely as well.

The problem is that we can't estimate the risks completly without knowing more about the way our universe operates. The only way of knowing more about the way it operates is by running experiments at the LHC. The main issues are that the scientists may be wrong with their models, but they can't know that without testing their models. They understand that and the fact that they have a page dedicated to the risks shows they are trying to be open about the risks.

Personally, I wouldn't mind dying by falling into a giant black hole as it enveloped the planet. It would probably be quite interesting for the few seconds you have. In any event, I'll be reading the link below, on how to maximize survival in a black hole.

Supporting Evidence: Maximizing survival time in a black hole (www.universetoday.com)
4 points

It's hard to say, but probably economically, China will become a bigger superpower than the U.S. if they allow open markets and support entrepreneurship. There are so many more Chinese that if they could get their country's efficiency up through modernization and education, their economic output would be enormous. After it has enough financial power, that will give them the leverage to become more active politically. They already have enough U.S. debt that they could destabilize our currency if they decided they wanted to dump it into the market, which is why we're so careful about denouncing anything they do.

Supporting Evidence: Hilary Clinton describes china debt problem (www.chinapost.com.tw)
2 points

Agreed, I watch a lot of Discovery Channel, Dirty Jobs, How it's made, random science shows. I click to CNN and Daily show for news, although CNN has been wasting too much time on celebrity news and other fluff pieces lately.

6 points

A sales tax punishes the people who consume a large percentage of their income. Rich people save and invest most of their income. The poor and middle class live from paycheck to paycheck and making a federal sales tax would weigh on them disproportionately.

2 points

She's a good but very political choice. McCain is trying to court the female voters who were all geared up about Hilary Clinton but disappointed about Obama's VP pick. I haven't ever heard of her before.

2 points

Five guys has the best fries I've ever eaten at a fast food place. Its burgers are done just right, and everything tastes fresh and you can watch them cooking your burger after you order.

2 points

Sadly, they are effective. Not everyone reads the paper or watches the news enough to stay current on all the issues. So advertising on the radio or during entertainment television helps candidates reach people who otherwise would not hear their message.

On the reverse side, attack ads work far too well. They spread misinformation or exaggerated versions of a candidate's positions and help associate a candidate with a particular fear people have. McCain's recent Olympic ads about how Obama's going to tax the middle class are a great example. Some people that were on the fence about Obama but are having a hard time with the economy might be persuaded just on that ad.

2 points

It depends on what language you speak in the first place. For a lot of non-Americans, English is hard to learn because we have so many exceptions to the rules. Just think about past tenses: clean -> cleaned, mean -> meant, awake->awoke, burst->burst. Since English is such a melting pot, we have all kinds of strange words and grammar from a lot of different places.

Supporting Evidence: english irregular verbs (www2.gsu.edu)
4 points

If anyone's dumb enough to believe they're buying pieces of the moon, then they deserve to be conned. I could try to sell rooms in the white house to people, but I don't own the white house, so buying a room from me would be meaningless. I suspect when people finally get to the moon it'll be like the land rush again, where people just set up a house and if they survive there for a few years, then they'll legally own it.

1 point

Yes, reading a book does create a new world in your mind, because you have to visualize the characters and their reasons for acting the way they do much more than other media. Good writers fill in details about all five senses that readers use to imagine the experience. But it's a good thing that you create a new version of reality, because you can apply lessons learned in books to real life without having to become a criminal, or drug addict, or soldier.

4 points

I've always liked the puzzle genre - games like Myst and the King's quest and Monkey Island series. From Zork to Sherlock Holmes recently, there's something satisfying about finally figuring out how all the pieces fit together that puzzle games offer that isn't there in the games where you just drive around and shoot people. They're more using your brain to solve problems than your brawn or quick fingers. The slower pace allows a more laid back gaming experience, and in the heyday of puzzle gaming, Lucasarts brought a lot of quirky humor to the genre before changing over to strategy games that makes replaying them enjoyable even now that their graphics look almost ancient.

2 points

Carlin always captured that moment of recognizing stupidity perfectly. He grabbed the audiences attention and focused it on the constant stream of ridiculousness from people in power in life while keeping it funny.

2 points

Best riffs, best guitarist, best songs, no saccharine "don't wanna miss a thing" songs, just rock.


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