If his parents had different attitudes towards mental health or firearms we wouldn't be hearing about this. However that says nothing about society in general nor does it say anything about trends.
When we select for school shooters we're also selecting for a large number of things going wrong. Part of that is going to be bad parenting.
Locally my strong impression is it's much easier to get mental health treatment.
Yes, they mean it. They've meant it often enough and in large enough numbers that it's presumably true.
From their point view: There are a lot more of them. They have claimed this land for centuries. They're religion 3.0 compared to the Jew's 1.0. They're told how special and superior their religion makes them. How they're the ones who know the truth.
Israel's existence showcases that they're not special, and they're not strong. It's like you're disproving their god.
My solution is that everyone become atheists and learn to think rationally but we're centuries away from that at best.
For perspective, 6% is significantly more than homosexuality. So it's enough to have dating websites, clubs, and so on.
Also Phil's link suggests that the number of couples who are willing, in theory, to do this is much greater than the number who actively do so. Some of that will be "theory" vs "practice", also known as "lying to pollsters about your sex life".
There are always "extenuating circumstances" if we use normal rules and ethics.
Basic pregnancy involves damage to the woman's body that is deeply illegal/unethical for one person to inflict on another without consent. Basic pregnancy is a deeply life changing event.
Basic medical ethics prevent me from being forced to give blood, even to save a dying child. That's the normal standard.
Black market so-called medical care created lots of horror stories. CDC thought right before Roe we had 130,000 self induced or black market abortions. Every hospital had a care unit to deal with this.
Forcing women to stay pregnant requires repression and control to make them do what we want.
Our tolerance towards state repression/control of minorities has gone down.
Ongoing informed personal consent is also a lot bigger in modern medical ethics than it was.
I've worked with these technologies. IMHO these fears are unrealistic, ignorant, and grossly over rated. The people making these statements typically don't personally work with this tech while the people who do work with it have less problems.
Skynet from Terminator is a work of fiction and imho as unrealistic as "Left Behind".
Saul: Right-wingers do not have a monopoly on defending Israel and Zionism.
"Backing Israel" in this context means "backing their government's efforts in the war".
That would be the official elected government of Israel doing official things like fighting the formally declared war.
Trying to claim that it's "backing Israel" to back Israel's protesters against their government is doing backflips with the normal meaning of the words here.
The counter argument is "Biden is trying to get Israel to do things that are in it's long term interests", and not "Biden backs them more".
Biden is trying to play Jimmy Cricket. Trump would hand out guns and say the other side has it coming.
Hamas is a symptom of the problem, it's not the problem itself.
The Palestinians want "their" land back so they can create an Islamic republic. Israel can't agree to that without it's destruction.
We have two sets of natives but there's not enough room to create two real countries. At best one of them can be a real country and the other a sawed off rump.
The Palestinians have historically insisted on everything or nothing. This is why they don't have a state.
Philip: They have been at this nearly a year; all the hostages are not yet home; Palestinian casualties are mounting and Hamas is as strong as ever.
We're deciding on the cost for killing a thousand Jews. If the cost is only that you need to return your hostages, then expect more hostages taken and more dead Jews because you're rewarding something that should be punished.
And btw Palestinian casualties per day are going down, not up. Presumably Israel is running out of things to destroy.
He certainly bungled things before 10/7. Israeli security is supposed to be focused on stopping Gaza from breaking out of their cage but he seems to have insisted on other things. The settlements also make security a lot harder than it needs to be.
Having said that, I find it very hard to accept that Israel should not have a brutal war because Hamas took hostages, or that Hamas would accept less than that.
His big focus should be to drive home to Hamas and their civilian supporters that 10-7 was a horrible idea even from the Palestinian point of view. Treating Hamas as a serious army/threat and attacking them everywhere they are has the predictable outcome of putting Gaza through a woodchipper. But I'm not sure how else you showcase the whole "horrible idea" thing.
Wiki's per day body count graph suggests Israel's "over reaction" may not be a thing.
Hamas did 10-7.
The appropriate response is a brutal war.
It's expected and acceptable if civilians die in a brutal war.
Genocide is illegal and immoral... but we want Israel to do seems to be more "not have a brutal war" than "not commit genocide".
As far as I can tell, as horrible as it is, Israel can keep the war going basically forever and have it still be ethical because Hamas refuses to surrender or stop it's war crimes.
Requests for us to prevent Israel from fighting the war are also requests for them to live with a fascist genocidal terror group terrorizing their civilians.
It would be nice if Israel found different ways to protect their civilians, and I'm doubtful that the current approach will work. Having said that, if their current approach is ethical then it's ethical.
That's why the Protesters keep jumping the shark. They need to spin a fascist genocidal terror group terrorizing civilians into something that's justified and ethical. Part of doing that is going to include "not dealing with reality".
It's like being in a bad 1970's sci fiction movie. Many loud, deeply dramatic hums and other sounds.
Occasionally I got a hot flash. I suspect there's (supposed to be not) enough energy being thrown around to set you on fire just from the iron in your blood.
Outlaw the loans. That forces the handful of people in this situation to actually have an income with realized cap gains. That fixes the actual problem created by these loans.
The flaw is it won't raise anywhere near enough money to do what the gov wants.
Harris gets a C+ or so. She's a generic Blue. She's missing both outstanding accomplishments and serious scandals. If someone brings solid evidence that she's been a key Biden aid then I'll raise that.
Her VP gets a B. Successful Governor.
Trump's VP gets an E or so. He's either a right wing nut or darn close and he was selected for personal loyalty to Trump.
Trump doesn't get a grade because school shooters don't graduate.
To a first approximation, businesses mostly collect taxes as opposed to paying them. There are a ton of fine print and inaccuracies to that statement, but if we're collecting a lot more in business taxes we should expect higher prices.
The PA is deeply corrupt, repressive, and doesn't represent it's people. Hamas is also deeply corrupt and also repressive.
However, violently opposing Israel is popular and desired. Attempting to get a "meaningful RoR" is so popular that the PA officially is trying to do that even though they've been bought out by Israel.
If they held elections right now Hamas would probably win, just because it managed to kill lots of Jews.
Hamas tends to get a pass because it's viewed as representing the "legitimate political aspirations" of the Palestinians. Those political aspirations can be summed up as "kicking the Jews out".
That's why I think Israel can't win the war in Gaza. Kill every member of Hamas and we'd instantly see a Hamas-2. They'd have to be violent because non-violence won't destroy Israel.
Hamas exists because the Palestinians want it. That's especially true for the people of Gaza who lost their land in the 1940s and have been told every since that they'll get it back.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Apalachee Killer’s Father Now Charged”
If his parents had different attitudes towards mental health or firearms we wouldn't be hearing about this. However that says nothing about society in general nor does it say anything about trends.
When we select for school shooters we're also selecting for a large number of things going wrong. Part of that is going to be bad parenting.
Locally my strong impression is it's much easier to get mental health treatment.
On “Open Mic for the week of 9/2/2024”
Yes, they mean it. They've meant it often enough and in large enough numbers that it's presumably true.
From their point view: There are a lot more of them. They have claimed this land for centuries. They're religion 3.0 compared to the Jew's 1.0. They're told how special and superior their religion makes them. How they're the ones who know the truth.
Israel's existence showcases that they're not special, and they're not strong. It's like you're disproving their god.
My solution is that everyone become atheists and learn to think rationally but we're centuries away from that at best.
"
For perspective, 6% is significantly more than homosexuality. So it's enough to have dating websites, clubs, and so on.
Also Phil's link suggests that the number of couples who are willing, in theory, to do this is much greater than the number who actively do so. Some of that will be "theory" vs "practice", also known as "lying to pollsters about your sex life".
On “A Cautionary Tale”
There are always "extenuating circumstances" if we use normal rules and ethics.
Basic pregnancy involves damage to the woman's body that is deeply illegal/unethical for one person to inflict on another without consent. Basic pregnancy is a deeply life changing event.
Basic medical ethics prevent me from being forced to give blood, even to save a dying child. That's the normal standard.
"
If someone had cash and a willing doctor...
Black market so-called medical care created lots of horror stories. CDC thought right before Roe we had 130,000 self induced or black market abortions. Every hospital had a care unit to deal with this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_abortion#Abortion_in_the_U.S._before_1973_(Roe_v._Wade)
the best thing people most upset about abortion could do to prevent it
Mostly they're not interested in preventing pregnancy, they're interested in forcing people to stay pregnant.
"
It's not just technological change.
Forcing women to stay pregnant requires repression and control to make them do what we want.
Our tolerance towards state repression/control of minorities has gone down.
Ongoing informed personal consent is also a lot bigger in modern medical ethics than it was.
"
Force all HC providers to have only one rate and advertise it.
On “Group Discussion: Banning Social Media Influencers From Small Towns”
It's a mistake to jump from "Fergusons exist" to "any random city must be Ferguson".
Most cities aren't Ferguson and don't want to be.
On “Open Mic for the week of 9/2/2024”
existential threat posed by unaligned AI?
I've worked with these technologies. IMHO these fears are unrealistic, ignorant, and grossly over rated. The people making these statements typically don't personally work with this tech while the people who do work with it have less problems.
Skynet from Terminator is a work of fiction and imho as unrealistic as "Left Behind".
"
Saul: Right-wingers do not have a monopoly on defending Israel and Zionism.
"Backing Israel" in this context means "backing their government's efforts in the war".
That would be the official elected government of Israel doing official things like fighting the formally declared war.
Trying to claim that it's "backing Israel" to back Israel's protesters against their government is doing backflips with the normal meaning of the words here.
The counter argument is "Biden is trying to get Israel to do things that are in it's long term interests", and not "Biden backs them more".
Biden is trying to play Jimmy Cricket. Trump would hand out guns and say the other side has it coming.
"
Trump backs Israel more than Biden. He recognized their capital was where they claim it is. He didn't bat an eye at his daughter becoming Jewish.
Those are solid creds against him being an anti-Semite.
On “College Football, and I Didn’t Know You Could Do That With The Game Clock”
What I've seen is the coach sending out his 2nd string and the other coach then doing the same thing. It's experience for the non-starters.
On “Open Mic for the week of 9/2/2024”
Hamas is a symptom of the problem, it's not the problem itself.
The Palestinians want "their" land back so they can create an Islamic republic. Israel can't agree to that without it's destruction.
We have two sets of natives but there's not enough room to create two real countries. At best one of them can be a real country and the other a sawed off rump.
The Palestinians have historically insisted on everything or nothing. This is why they don't have a state.
Philip: They have been at this nearly a year; all the hostages are not yet home; Palestinian casualties are mounting and Hamas is as strong as ever.
We're deciding on the cost for killing a thousand Jews. If the cost is only that you need to return your hostages, then expect more hostages taken and more dead Jews because you're rewarding something that should be punished.
And btw Palestinian casualties per day are going down, not up. Presumably Israel is running out of things to destroy.
On “Open Mic for the week of 8/26/2024”
He certainly bungled things before 10/7. Israeli security is supposed to be focused on stopping Gaza from breaking out of their cage but he seems to have insisted on other things. The settlements also make security a lot harder than it needs to be.
Having said that, I find it very hard to accept that Israel should not have a brutal war because Hamas took hostages, or that Hamas would accept less than that.
His big focus should be to drive home to Hamas and their civilian supporters that 10-7 was a horrible idea even from the Palestinian point of view. Treating Hamas as a serious army/threat and attacking them everywhere they are has the predictable outcome of putting Gaza through a woodchipper. But I'm not sure how else you showcase the whole "horrible idea" thing.
"
I'm surprised at this. My impression was the bulk of Israel was still in "punish the Palestinians" mode.
"
They're negotiating like they're going to be killed if and when the hostages are released and the war ends.
"
Wiki's per day body count graph suggests Israel's "over reaction" may not be a thing.
Hamas did 10-7.
The appropriate response is a brutal war.
It's expected and acceptable if civilians die in a brutal war.
Genocide is illegal and immoral... but we want Israel to do seems to be more "not have a brutal war" than "not commit genocide".
As far as I can tell, as horrible as it is, Israel can keep the war going basically forever and have it still be ethical because Hamas refuses to surrender or stop it's war crimes.
Requests for us to prevent Israel from fighting the war are also requests for them to live with a fascist genocidal terror group terrorizing their civilians.
It would be nice if Israel found different ways to protect their civilians, and I'm doubtful that the current approach will work. Having said that, if their current approach is ethical then it's ethical.
That's why the Protesters keep jumping the shark. They need to spin a fascist genocidal terror group terrorizing civilians into something that's justified and ethical. Part of doing that is going to include "not dealing with reality".
On “Weekend Plans Post: The MRI”
It's like being in a bad 1970's sci fiction movie. Many loud, deeply dramatic hums and other sounds.
Occasionally I got a hot flash. I suspect there's (supposed to be not) enough energy being thrown around to set you on fire just from the iron in your blood.
On “Open Mic for the week of 8/26/2024”
Judge tossed the appeal because he did something unprofessionally foolish in writing out the papers. Something about the PDF.
Note it's impossible to appeal that.
"
Looks like they were recently killed by their captors. There are suggestions it was when Israeli troops got too close. No clue if that's speculative.
On “Kamala’s Taxing Policies”
Outlaw the loans. That forces the handful of people in this situation to actually have an income with realized cap gains. That fixes the actual problem created by these loans.
The flaw is it won't raise anywhere near enough money to do what the gov wants.
"
True that.
If I have to give school grades to all of them...
Harris gets a C+ or so. She's a generic Blue. She's missing both outstanding accomplishments and serious scandals. If someone brings solid evidence that she's been a key Biden aid then I'll raise that.
Her VP gets a B. Successful Governor.
Trump's VP gets an E or so. He's either a right wing nut or darn close and he was selected for personal loyalty to Trump.
Trump doesn't get a grade because school shooters don't graduate.
"
To a first approximation, businesses mostly collect taxes as opposed to paying them. There are a ton of fine print and inaccuracies to that statement, but if we're collecting a lot more in business taxes we should expect higher prices.
On “Open Mic for the week of 8/26/2024”
North: Hamas tends to “get a pass” because it is the opponent both the Israeli and American right wants.
When I say it "gets a pass" I mean "it gets a pass from the Arab media that I listen to".
The phrase "represents the legitimate political aspirations of the Palestinians" is something I've gotten from Al Jazeera a time or three.
That phrase is the flip side of them pretending Hamas doesn't exist and Israel is at war with the people of Gaza.
North: the PA administers more Palestinians and has been behaving generally quite well towards Israel for the past decade or so.
True. And this is one of the reasons they can't have elections. The people want their land back, to do that they need a war with Israel.
"
The PA is deeply corrupt, repressive, and doesn't represent it's people. Hamas is also deeply corrupt and also repressive.
However, violently opposing Israel is popular and desired. Attempting to get a "meaningful RoR" is so popular that the PA officially is trying to do that even though they've been bought out by Israel.
If they held elections right now Hamas would probably win, just because it managed to kill lots of Jews.
Hamas tends to get a pass because it's viewed as representing the "legitimate political aspirations" of the Palestinians. Those political aspirations can be summed up as "kicking the Jews out".
That's why I think Israel can't win the war in Gaza. Kill every member of Hamas and we'd instantly see a Hamas-2. They'd have to be violent because non-violence won't destroy Israel.
Hamas exists because the Palestinians want it. That's especially true for the people of Gaza who lost their land in the 1940s and have been told every since that they'll get it back.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.