I was referencing "people in general", not you in particular. For "people in general" acting as if they were deliberating is a strategy, because most ...
The truth is that most of us have already chosen sides. Pretending that we have not, that we are weighing the two sides on a sensitive scale, is a str...
Very true. Also, being poor means living on the edge of small disasters which can happen at any time. One's life is precarious. Constant threat makes ...
Environmental determinism? Could be -- something about cows, pastures, rolling hills, Minnesota weather... I'd say we all started out in the middle of...
Today (St. Patrick's Day) there was a long article in either the New York Times or Washington Post showing how segregated conservatives / Republicans ...
With or without parental consent, it seems extremely hazardous to give anyone younger than 21 sex hormones for purposes of treating 'gender dysphoria'...
So fine: you regret it. But you did, and it's a perfectly fine, if somewhat hazardous topic. In a sense, yes. Religious interpretations are not restri...
Well, I don't think the genitals define the soul either, but they certainly define the body--the part that we actually know something about. Pleasure ...
While I warned you away from the topic, there's nothing wrong with, on the one hand comforting the afflicted and, on the other hand, afflicting the co...
Whether, and how quickly, one can 'let things go' and move on depends, to some extent, on how our personalities work. Some people are 'grudge holders'...
I also would warn you away from this topic--NOT because you know less about gender, sex, transgender, etc. than banno or wood--but because it's a poli...
The Uber-powerful don't require your critical reasoning when it comes to doing what they tell you to do. It just requires your obedience. But you vs. ...
No, it wasn't. 911 brought about some fairly radical moves -- grounding all air traffic for a few days, for instance, It was mercifully quiet without ...
In fairness, though, Covid-19 was a new disease, even if it belonged to a group of viral diseases that had already been identified. We should be able ...
One approach to God is to present the deity in altogether familiar, knowable terms. The opposite approach is to define God as unfathomable, incomprehe...
If one were to estimate the number of people who are non-binary or trans by counting media references, one would come up with double digit figures. I ...
I agree: The spending habits of young and middle aged people are very poorly informed. One doesn't need the top of the line cell phone, and -- by the ...
Then people could wish to be happy with whatever they had and to wish for nothing more. The wish would be granted. And they all lived happily ever aft...
Working people pay taxes; they should get benefits. Rich people pay few if any taxes. They should not receive benefits (like tax give-aways). Better y...
Personally, I haven't found that a desire for fine art follows sexual satisfaction. A cigarette, maybe, but please, no fine art in the bedroom. Are yo...
The argument about taxing parents vs. the rest of us is just not interesting; I don't see it as a problem. But, the bigger problem here is that you cl...
Questions: Did any of the 10 people have any rights? No. Did any of the 10 people have any property? No. Fast forward 100,000 years. Questions: Did an...
You talk of rights, but you do not explain where rights come from. Did you create your rights ex nihilo? Did you just decide you had something called ...
Most people don't have to even try. Well, look: In the BIG PICTURE, everything is screwed no matter what. In the end the sun expands and the earth end...
Yes, there is an end. I'm 75. I used to be very sexually active. Over the years, the urgency with which I have desired sex has gradually decreased to ...
The wish to die from the course of a disease can be addressed in an advanced directive. In the directive you inform your doctors of the point at which...
If it is reason you want, then our response is obvious: Not only do we think you are entitled to turn down life saving treatment, we INSIST you turn i...
Of course, and obviously: our needs and wants are satiable, and are regularly satiated. There are outliers whose only response to desire is MORE. They...
Public Health officials have the authority (and power) required to regulate behavior and impose quarantines or vaccination requirements, if the threat...
Of course you know what an atomized society is -- all individuals without social obligations -- Margaret Thatcher's "there is no such thing as 'societ...
In an atomized population your argument works. In a society where individual behavior makes a difference to other people, whether intended or not, you...
But fentanyl, oxycodone, heroine, meth, other drugs, and alcohol have been a leading cause of death in the affected demographic for 2 or 3 years, at l...
I would not want to minimize the consequences of the lockdown. While I am an old guy and don't get around much any more (every day is a sort of lockdo...
HIV & AIDS presented a similar problem for gay men from roughly June of 1981 going forward. (June 1, '81 is when the first cases were described.). As ...
I have tried really really hard to find an ounce of sympathy in my heart for poor Megan, and you know what? There just isn't any. When it comes to Meg...
That was a nice read--detailing how the Mother Country has fallen! What I felt was less schadenfreude and more relief at getting a cohesive explanatio...
Yes. Morality is individually applied but reflects the morality of the community. Sometimes individuals develop deviations from the standard morality,...
One problem that anyone would have in considering this question is that they already have a religion-based system of morality which is religiously bas...
Mother always warned us to not discuss politics or religion at the table when we had company. Not talk about politics or religion--what else is there?...
Archeologists say "the truth is in the garbage." They are not being cynical. People's garbage testifies to their real activities, contrary to what the...
Good of you to volunteer in place of a gorilla, they being a peaceable and endangered species. On the other hand, you might want to volunteer as a gue...
Whether cross-racial attraction is racist or not depends on how it is done. A black guy and a white guy hit it off in the bar, go home together, and h...
It seems like the people who are "happy" and the countries that are "happy" (whatever it means for a country to be happy) would have some elements in ...
Junk DNA might not be all that junky. But the workings of DNA are not something I know much (like, anything) about. I take my guidance on DNA-influenc...
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