May 2013
32 posts
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An argument that's always bothered me.
“You don’t need <insert thing or freedom here>”
People use this argument a lot. It’s used to justify weapon laws, sex laws, food bans and just about anything else. There are a lot of reasons why this argument bothers me, and I think it’s time to go through them.
1) a great many of the things that make life good, that make our lives so much better than that of...
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i never feel like more of an old man
thiswillworkfornow:
than when it comes to me exercising/trying a new sport, between my back and my knees being awful i have to do a ton of stretches and warm ups before i can even attempt to workout/play sports and its just a pain both metaphorically and literally haha.. *sigh* i am falling apart.
I never felt more like an old man than when I moved into my first Boston Apartment in a student...
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“Kyle Arrington manned the first team with Talib to open OTAs while Alfonzo...”
– Ras-I Dowling Might Be Patriots Best Option at Cornerback Alongside Aqib Talib, If He Can Stay Healthy | New England Patriots | NESN.com
Every year I do this dance with Dowling, and I’m not letting myself get too ambitious about what he can do this season. Let’s just see him stay healthy first and...
snarkeet:
newworldorganization:
kosmonaunt:
newworldorganization:
kosmonaunt:
newworldorganization:
why are all black dudes muscular omg
idk? :c
i mean im not complaining but shit
it’s like they were bred to be that way
Well that is a possibility I mean when you take history into account. And well, Blacks went through selective breeding and all back in the slave days.
good...
The Underemployed Academic: Tumblr is turning me... →
thatpretentioustwit:
a-wind-temple-in-appalachia:
aondeug:
unemployedacademic:
The fandoms here, the fandom wars, the obsessions the freak outs the ridiculous devotion to mediocre shows, all of it is wearing me out and making me hate shows I was okay with or even liked.
I’m not sure what it is about this community, but unless I was a really hard core fan going in this place…
This is why...
Tumblr is turning me into a cranky person.
The fandoms here, the fandom wars, the obsessions the freak outs the ridiculous devotion to mediocre shows, all of it is wearing me out and making me hate shows I was okay with or even liked.
I’m not sure what it is about this community, but unless I was a really hard core fan going in this place has made me hate it. I think the only reason it hasn’t turned me on Firefly is just that...
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Why Obama Is Suddenly Under Siege →
Slate returns to cheerleader mode.
Remember with a scandal before you reject, or embrace it imagine the sides were flipped and how you would react.
Here’s what drives me nuts about Slate/MSNBC, they’re party people not ideology people. I don’t watch much FNC so it could be exactly the same, but I remember some of the conservatives under Bush were ripping him apart on spending...
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Reading List
Because you asked for it!
Well at least I assume some of you meant to ask for it but forgot…
Anyway, a quick recap of what I’ve read lately and some recommendations therein.
The Righteous Mind
This book by Jonathan Haidt (PhD) explores and explains much of the underlying psychology of morality and moral decisions. It differs from much of the research in the area by casting a...
Obama Is Making the Case for Conservatism Better... →
It must get confusing in the IT department at the Associated Press: Are you talking about the hackers who hacked our Twitter account or the Justice Department hackers who hacked our phones? Monday, the Associated Press reported that the Justice Department had secretly obtained two months of records of phone conversations by its…
Rare bit of insightful honesty from Slate, they used to have...
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How the IRS Targeted Tea Party Groups for Abuse →
The government agency apologizes, says “mistakes were made.”
I’m tempted to just repeat a lot of what Jon Stewart said about this story, but lets break this down.
We had the IRS one of the most feared governmental institutions targeting political groups based on their orientation covering it up and then offering a limp wristed apology.
I just want that to sink in, the level of bullshit...
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Daily Kos: Top 10 Jobs in Libertarian Paradise →
Tired of Big Gubmint getting in the way of your entrepreneurial ambition? Ready to Go Galt and shrug all the welfare queens off your shoulders so you can have the riches you deserve? Well, I have …
What we’re fighting against:
So I’m tempted to go point by point and refute this, but I’ll keep it short. This writer is first off a bit of an idiot and I’m feeling...
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Substitute Teaching and why my children will be...
So I substitute teach, it is one of my many infrequent part time jobs that fills me with self loathing and despair. I’m being dramatic, I actually enjoy it most of the time, I especially like when I get to teach, but there are things I run across that annoy me, and a lot of it comes back to my horrible experiences in public education.
I like to think that academically I am a moderate...
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WHEN MY SECOND THOUGHT AFTER SEEING A BABY DEER IS...
whatshouldwecallpaleolife:
I can tell you the sound one makes when someone’s dog kills it is horrifying.
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General Trend
No science here, no research nothing, but hopefully a few people can contribute.
One thing I’ve observed about life is that people love to over-estimate their own virtue, and see excessive vice in others.
The rich are always completely self made, and the poor are obviously dumb and don’t work hard enough.
Thin people are thin because they have perfect self control, the fat are fat...
For the foreseeable future
Expect to see some sort of original content from me everyday, or at least every weekday. I have no artistic skill so it will be text. I hope my few followers do enjoy, but realize that you can expect some wandering of topics since I have so few followers and this is mostly an attempt to keep myself busy.
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Changing Media
This will be short, but one of the new developments that has a lot of potential to bring new types of television shows and movies to light is the increase in the amount of firms and places producing television. We now have Amazon Prime and Netflix Original and I believe Hulu is producing and publishing it’s own television as well.
When you have a change in the production of a good or...
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Hubris
I may be a bit odd when it comes to weight things, I’ve been heavy my whole life and I’m currently approaching the leanest I’ve ever been (excluding pre-schooling years) at 6’1” 280lbs 26%BF.
I have a lean body mass over 200 lbs, so when I see things like “ideal weight calculators” I like to play a game. I look at what their max allowed weight is and...
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Right Thinking →
I really like Amazon a lot, they make shopping much better for me by removing the worst parts, namely, you know.
PEOPLE
But, this serves as a perfect example of how regulation often serves not to protect the public against the market, or to protect the small guy against the evil large corporations, but instead to help them push people out of the market and control more of it.
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Obama Wants Millennials to Love Big Government →
These days, millennials are growing less gullible.
I for on welcome the growing cynicism towards governmental overreach from my generation with open arms.
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The Lohan Excuse and Why Old Media is Dying
We sit and watch as the old media descends quickly into obsolescence while at the same time maintaining that the consumer is at fault for the shoddy, flawed reporting of actual world events. What should strike people as curious is that while the old media is using the Lohan excuse (which I will explicate shortly) to explain why their coverage of important news stories etc is frankly horrible.
...
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Surveillance Cameras.
There is an interesting trend right now in western countries (I won’t speak of the non-west as I am hopelessly disconnected from the on the ground realities) we are growing ever safer and less violent and at the same time increasingly afraid of violence. Despite spurious claims of “obesity epidemics” and various other diseases and afflictions of modernity we will live longer than...
April 2013
15 posts
snarkeet:
Is there a word for that thing where you see or hear something once and then all of a sudden it seems like that same thing keeps reappearing everywhere you look
Blue car syndrome.
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than...”
– Samuel Adams.
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Amanda Palmer's "A Poem for Dzhokhar" Is the Worst... →
This weekend, as law-enforcement officers across the country devoted their resources to the manhunt and capture of the dangerous criminal Reese Witherspoon, an actual crime against humanity was being ignored: Musician Amanda Palmer was writing the worst poem ever composed in the English language, “A Poem for Dzhokhar.”
Honestly, I’m not that offended by the poem’s content,...
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How Government Killed the Medical Profession →
As health care gets more bureaucratic, will doctors go Galt?
A long, good read on how government intervention has damaged our medical profession brought to you by the people of the Reason Foundation.
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tarzanekingoffemales:
Do NOT drive through Boston or take the subway right now. The emergency radio is buzzing with more possible bombs. Please spread this everywhere you can to let your friends and family members know. It could save a life.
Boston...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22160691
I have no words.
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Uppity Wiccan Cunt: Are people seriously... →
social-darwin-awards:
carrotfortress:
social-darwin-awards:
andylevy:
social-darwin-awards:
politicsandhandgrenades:
itsraininginmyhead:
previewofthoughts:
boughtbyblood07:
IDIOTS! Those jobs are not meant to be careers! Fast food jobs are…
*Puts Economist hat on*
95+% of the work force makes above minimum wage, most of the minimum wage debate is driven by the...
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Dear Rick Santorum →
Seriously, guys this isn’t even good strategy.
Oh shit some new people want in the party? we might have some growth?
KICK THEM OUT WE MUST REMAIN PURE TO AN IDEOLOGICALLY INCONSISTENT POINT OF VIEW.
I’d understand if they made the point that Jonah Goldberg made: oh libertarians are conservatives because Fusionism etc etc. Okay, but instead you want to expel a group of young,...
Quiz for a classmate →
Help one of my (former) classmates out by taking this quiz. It’s for a stats class.
March 2013
21 posts
3 tags
The Pride of Puritanism or Conspicuous...
Bit of a meandering topic, but one tendency I’ve noticed is that people feel an unnatural and wholly unearned amount of pride form going without something pleasurable. It drives a great deal of our political thinking and economic thinking. First lets establish the condition.
People like to make a show of going without something that’s pleasurable and has the slightest hint of being...
The Sexual Politics of Meat →
Wherein the author posits that to be a feminist you have to be a vegetarian.
The logic is laughable and it’s a politically bad idea, it’s akin to the much denigrated Limbaugh’s claim that you cannot be a cafeteria conservative, or, if you’re to believe in any of the tenants of a movement you must accept them all in their totality. My girlfriend tells me I’m a...
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Free Speech Unless You Disagree With Me →
So, I’ve talked about freedom of speech before, it seems like people have an intuitive issue with it, and I understand that. It’s hard for some to appreciate why porn is something worth defending, or why hate speech should be allowed. The problem is that when you start abridging liberties without clear and defined costs you are at the very least, setting a terrible precedent....
