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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#343726: Dec 16th 2020 at 10:37:14 AM

The mistake you made was thinking that humans are inherently anything. If you're tarring Abraham Lincoln and Adolf Hitler with the same brush, you're making an error no matter what coat of paint you use.

Humans are born not knowing a single goddamn thing about anything. They have to be taught to be cruel, and they have to be taught to be kind. Neither good nor evil are fundamental absolutes about the human condition; they are both learned behaviors.

If you want to make a better world, you do it by teaching children. What children learn today will determine what the world looks like tomorrow. That's why the right is so big on privatized education and religious schools; so they can control what values are adopted by the next generation.

The other main way that people learn is through consequences. And, unfortunately, wealth and privilege tend to insulate people from consequences.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that people naturally, biologically lean towards any position on the moral compass. Every person is a product of their upbringing and their world experiences. Nothing more and nothing less.

Very well said! [awesome]

Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Dec 16th 2020 at 10:37:58 AM

"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#343727: Dec 16th 2020 at 10:37:49 AM

This slander against Lincoln's beard cannot go unpunished.tongue

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#343728: Dec 16th 2020 at 10:38:08 AM

I mean, it's both? While I acknowledge that arguments regarding genetics tend to go in a bad direction, broadly speaking people do inherit predispositions towards certain personality traits from their parents (which is usually where these arguments go bad because they tend to make generalizations about racial groups instead of just talking about this on an individual level) and then they're shaped by the environment and the experiences that they grow up in.

EDIT: That being said yeah this is a conversation better suited for another thread.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Dec 16th 2020 at 3:39:41 PM

RainehDaze Nero Fangirl (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Nero Fangirl
#343729: Dec 16th 2020 at 10:41:15 AM

[up][up] It's great for hiding his chin, but it looks awful. tongue

Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#343730: Dec 16th 2020 at 10:49:30 AM

He grew it because he already looked awful without it according to contemporary sources.

It's funny reading things from his time talking about how ugly Lincoln was. We're so surrounded by Lincoln imagery in the modern day and its been so much a part of our lives since birth that I can't really comprehend the idea of Lincoln looking good or bad. Lincoln looks like Lincoln. Water is wet. Fire is hot. Lincoln looks like Lincoln.

RainingMetal (Handed A Sword) Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#343731: Dec 16th 2020 at 10:50:51 AM

Pre-beard Lincoln looks like James Bond.

ASAB: All Sponsors Are Bad.
Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
ITNW1989 a from Big Meat, USA Since: Nov, 2012 Relationship Status: GAR for Archer
a
#343733: Dec 16th 2020 at 10:57:23 AM

He was told by Grace Bedell in a letter when she was 11 years old, that much I remember. She said that he'd look better if he grew out his facial hair since he had a thin-looking face, according to her, and he ended up doing so.

Also, pre-beard Lincoln actually has a more than passing resemblance to Bill Nye, I find.

Hitokiri in the streets, daishouri in the sheets.
RainingMetal (Handed A Sword) Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#343734: Dec 16th 2020 at 11:10:33 AM

I concede to Abe Lincoln being Bill Nye. I knew that beardless look was familiar, but I got my sources wrong.

ASAB: All Sponsors Are Bad.
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#343735: Dec 16th 2020 at 11:13:36 AM

Also, TIL that the Big Red Button in the Oval Office brought Obama tea instead of soda.

PointMaid Since: Jun, 2014
#343736: Dec 16th 2020 at 11:20:30 AM

Heh. Tea is good. (I usually drink coffee myself). Wonder what drink Biden will have it request?

clemont107 Mega Togekiss?! from Land of Missed Opportunities (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
Mega Togekiss?!
#343737: Dec 16th 2020 at 11:20:53 AM

[up]x2 Humorously it highlights the massive difference in health habits between Obama and T***. Few people drink as much soda as Donald. That is something he actually may be the best at.

Edited by clemont107 on Dec 16th 2020 at 2:21:01 PM

"Wow, no Mega Togekiss in Legends Z-A. Or any non-Froslass new Sinnoh Mega Evolutions. Round of applause, everybody." - Dawn
FluffyMcChicken My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare from where the floating lights gleam Since: Jun, 2014 Relationship Status: In another castle
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
#343738: Dec 16th 2020 at 11:22:13 AM

Democrats may be popping open the champagne with Biden's victory, but pro-D newspapers keep sounding alarms about California.

Key passages:

San Francisco Chronicle: California Republicans have a pulse and see a way to more victories

In any other universe, the November election results would be devastating for the California GOP. It remains in a superminority in the Legislature. Only 11 of the state's 53 House members next year will be Republicans. And Joe Biden drubbed President Trump in the state.

But fourteen years after a Republican was last elected to statewide office, the California Republican Party may have a future.

Republicans won more battleground congressional seats than they lost, and voters sided with them on more ballot initiatives than on those backed by the Democratic Party. Their share of registered voters inched upward, and several of their winning House candidates were immigrants or first-generation Americans - a rare sign of diversity from the GOP.

Three of the winning GOP congressional candidates ousted Democratic incumbents. No Republican had done that in California since 1994.

All this happened in an election in which many pundits expected Trump to drag California Republicans down with him. There were predictions that a larger, younger and less-white electorate would bury the GOP further into irrelevance. Instead, California GOP party leaders say they recruited 24,000 new donors and 42,000 new volunteers.

The GOP sees opportunities going forward. Gov. Gavin Newsom, who faces re-election in 2022, looks less invincible than he once did - especially after his French Laundry fiasco - and Republicans won't have to run against Vice President-elect Kamala Harris for her Senate seat in 2022. The party has a strong potential candidate for governor in Kevin Faulconer, the pro-choice, pro-same sex marriage, climate change-acknowledging mayor of San Diego who says he didn't vote for Trump.

Plus, Republicans expect voters to turn on Democrats who run the state as they tire of whipsawing coronavirus rules and scandals such as the Employment Development Department’s incompetence in carrying out its basic job of delivering benefits to unemployed Californians.

Part of the solution, said Suzette Martinez Valladares of Santa Clarita (Los Angeles County), the lone Republican in November to flip a Democratic-held Assembly seat, is to recruit more candidates who reflect California's electorate. Like her. She's 39, Latina and doesn't come from the corporate world - she's the former CEO of a nonprofit preschool.

The GOP may have found another winning formula in Orange County, where Young Kim and Michelle Steel beat Democratic Reps. Gil Cisneros and Harley Rouda, respectively. Kim and Steel will be among the first three Korean American women to serve in Congress when they are sworn in Jan. 3 along with Democratic Rep.-elect Marilyn Strickland of Washington.

Steel targeted Orange County's Vietnamese American community with online advertising and messages aimed at small business owners. While most Asian American voters support Democrats, older Vietnamese Americans lean Republican. Steel targeted nearly 35,000 voters who the campaign determined were Vietnamese-language voters and stressed her opposition to communism, noting how her parents fled North Korea.

California Republicans will have one significant advantage going forward: Trump is leaving office, making it harder for Democrats to tie Republicans to every tweet from a president who was hugely unpopular in California.

A Guardian article about increasing Californian resistance to pandemic restrictions also describes how minority businesses are disproportionally affected by the restrictions imposed by the Democrat-held government.

State data released in August showed that close to half of all California small businesses were at risk of shutting down because of the pandemic. Minority-owned establishments were disproportionately affected, the survey concluded, with the number of businesses owned by African Americans dropping by 41%, Latino-owned businesses by 32%, and Asian-owned businesses by 25%. Roughly 36% of immigrant-owned businesses also went under.

If they played their cards right, the California Republicans have a huge opportunity to make inroads among minorities in the state, reflecting the trend this past election that stunned many Democrats and members of this forum.

DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#343739: Dec 16th 2020 at 11:26:53 AM

[up] So looking up Faulconer, he seems alright for a Republican, surprisingly Liberal on most things (except for trying to keep the Minimum Wage in San Diego down).

So there's no way he's going to win a Primary even in California; they're gonna nominate some QAnoner Trumpeteer Loon and drive Faulconer to the Independent Conservatives.

singularityshot Since: Dec, 2012
#343740: Dec 16th 2020 at 11:28:37 AM

So... Pete and Transport, especially regarding that tragedy, along with the smarter streets initiative that he pioneered.

    Looking at the junction when the accident happened 

Firstly, it should be noted that this had nothing to do with the smarter streets initiative. The accident occurred on the old junction design, which was a four lane one way road running north-south with the east-west route running one lane in each direction.

On the face of it, I don't see how you could have turned the lights off at this junction from a safety standpoint. Visibility from the east-west road looked really poor, and trying to cross four lanes of traffic seems really risky. It's especially bad because the signals for the north south route were located on the far side of the junction, i.e. not above the stop line - so say it is dark, and you were trying to judge where the stop line is based on the signal location, it's likely you would overshoot and end up stopping in the middle of the intersection.

So from a professional perspective I'd like to read the report the consultants did - let's just say I am somewhat sceptical. But again, I am viewing this from the UK, not the US and this could be my bias showing through - as we don't tend to have grid based cities like South Bend was.

This does step through into a larger question about the overall competence of the South Bend Traffic department to accept the report in the first place: and it's telling that the local community pushed back and got the lights reinstated before the accident. However, it's hard to hold this against them. Local authorities hire consultants because they don't have the capacity to undertake this sort of work. There is an implicit trust that the consultants know what they are doing, and will present the results without fear or favour - especially where safety is concerned. Consultants live and die by their reputation, so if they end up with the blame for a major safety failing it can ruin even the largest of companies.

TLDR: Had nothing to do with Pete's policies. Surprised the junction got turned off in the first place. Looked like a tragedy waiting to happen even with the signals active.

    The junction now and smarter streets 

The good news is that the smarter streets programme that Pete pushed through has made lots of changes to the junction that I think should make it much safer. Firstly, having two way traffic on the north south route should cause drivers to slow down. And reducing speed is the easiest way to make junctions safer for non-motorised users (NMUs). I still don't like the fact that the signals are on the far side of the intersection (I guess this is standard) but at least because of two way traffic there are now signals that are in line with the stop line for all arms so you can use that to judge the dimensions of the intersection. Other observations are that the markings for the cross walk are much more distinct (zebra pattern as opposed to just two solid lines) so that is also a positive.

Overall, I like the direction of the smarter streets approach. Lower speeds in urban areas = good. Roundabouts = good. And I do want to point out that rewiring a road network in an urban area is no mean feat, so Pete should get kudos for that. Only thing that I am sceptical of are the bike lanes - unsegregated from motorised traffic, the fact the bike lanes run in-between the standard lanes means that if you were in the left lane and need to turn right you have to cross the bike lane and that there are parked cars right up against the bike lane - not a fan.

Of course, the proof does have to be in the pudding and so it would be good to see if there are any follow-up studies on overall road safety. It does however take time for these changes to bed in, so I wouldn't expect a fair assessment of the overall effectiveness to be possible till 2022 i.e. 5 years after opening.

TLDR: The junction was improved thanks to Pete - so you could argue he responded the right way to the incident. Smarter streets looks to be a good idea, unless you cycle.

Honestly, I think Pete comes off pretty well looking at the evidence. He's shown what can be possible in an urban, but not metropolitan area, in the US and frankly more thinking like that is probably a good thing. Yeah, you can have massive infrastructure projects in New York or Chicago but there is a lot to be said for the smaller cities with targeted infrastructure interventions, and I bet you'd get a lot more return on your investment.

Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#343741: Dec 16th 2020 at 11:29:04 AM

@Point Maid: Biden has a fondness for ice cream and yogurt as his Trademark Favorite Food, so he might have his button just bring him ice cream and yogurt.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#343742: Dec 16th 2020 at 11:29:56 AM

"Smarter streets looks to be a good idea, unless you cycle."

Ah, nuts.

megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#343743: Dec 16th 2020 at 12:54:58 PM

Does anyone have any ideas for what we can expect from the people in our lives (like my grandma or my uncle) that genuinely believe that there was election fraud when Biden takes office?

Edited by megaeliz on Dec 16th 2020 at 3:57:50 PM

clemont107 Mega Togekiss?! from Land of Missed Opportunities (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
Mega Togekiss?!
#343744: Dec 16th 2020 at 12:56:11 PM

[up]Endless complaining, no action.

"Wow, no Mega Togekiss in Legends Z-A. Or any non-Froslass new Sinnoh Mega Evolutions. Round of applause, everybody." - Dawn
megaeliz Since: Mar, 2017
#343745: Dec 16th 2020 at 12:58:48 PM

[up]. Still, it’s kinda scary how cultlike the whole thing feels.

My mom told me that when they were visiting some relatives a few weeks ago, that my uncle confidently told my grandma that “the case will go to the Supreme Court, and trump will win.” It’s like they are living in a completely different reality.

[down]. I honestly have no idea how they managed to rationalize that.

Edited by megaeliz on Dec 16th 2020 at 4:22:12 AM

PushoverMediaCritic I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out. from the Italy of America Since: Jul, 2015 Relationship Status: watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I'm sorry Tien, but I must go all out.
#343746: Dec 16th 2020 at 1:09:36 PM

Well, it did, and he didn't. What did he say in response to that?

Draghinazzo (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: I get a feeling so complicated...
#343747: Dec 16th 2020 at 1:10:40 PM

Does anyone have any ideas for what we can expect from the people in our lives (like my grandma or my uncle) that genuinely believe that there was election fraud when Biden takes office?

They probably won't ever accept Biden as a "legitimate" president and insist that the republican politicians and SC failed Trump, if I had to guess.

sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#343748: Dec 16th 2020 at 1:27:24 PM

My mom told me that when they were visiting some relatives a few weeks ago, that my uncle confidently told my grandma that “the case will go to the Supreme Court, and trump will win.” It’s like they are living in a completely different reality.
Well he was half-right, unless their refusal to hear the case means it didn't go to them.

Been seeing sone if this from my dad's Facebook posts, which motivated a post a while back about a usps contractor claiming his trailer was used for voter fraud.

AngrokVa indighost from america, unfortunately Since: Feb, 2012 Relationship Status: Saddled with unnecessary feelings
indighost
#343749: Dec 16th 2020 at 1:40:47 PM

My brother won't shut up lately about the stupid DMCA bill that Thom Tillis is trying to push. Just so I can get him to seriously shut the fuck up about this, are you guys sure this bill won't be passed?

Edited by AngrokVa on Dec 16th 2020 at 4:41:19 AM

Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#343750: Dec 16th 2020 at 1:43:58 PM

Wait, is he now trying to push a bill?

He tried and failed to shove an amendment onto the budget extension, but the version of that which got passed was clean.

Edited by Silasw on Dec 16th 2020 at 9:44:14 AM

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran

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