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I agree that the Three Fascisms were totalizing systems as was the USSR. Stalin was bad news all round--ruthless, dictatorial, paranoid, etc. but that...
June 20, 2021 at 00:45
Yes, Nazi ideology, built on top of resentments over WWI, the Versailles treaty, and a decade of weak government and economic problems during the Weim...
June 19, 2021 at 19:51
A day-by-day account doesn't appeal to me, but if you like it, great. Will it cover both the war in Asia as well as the war in Europe? The World War -...
June 19, 2021 at 08:00
It is in the national anthem -- "does that star-spangled banner yet wave". It's a reference to the white stars/blue field on the US flag. The author, ...
June 18, 2021 at 19:54
I know what "spangled" means, EXACTLY, but to what degraded use it is being put by the leaking sewer pipe of corroding riff raff, I couldn't say. What...
June 18, 2021 at 04:42
I already had a nap, plus an afternoon tranquilizer. No senile raving here!
June 18, 2021 at 01:34
What -- a robot justice in your back pocket or a robot vacuum cleaner? One can be had at Target; the other is much, much more expensive.
June 18, 2021 at 01:32
Robotics have come a long ways, but I should note that the 2 or 3 SCOTUSBOTS are not AI robots. They run on a processor used to operate robot vacuum c...
June 18, 2021 at 00:02
Sir: (I'm presuming) You do not understand the function of threads such as the "Israel killing Civilians in Gaza and the West Bank". "Philosophical di...
June 17, 2021 at 23:49
There are no robots already on SCOTUS?
June 17, 2021 at 23:20
NPR does do that a lot. So does the New York Times and some other publications. Too often the background reporting consists of interviews with advocac...
June 17, 2021 at 02:10
All that and more! There are solutions to our problems at hand, but we ourselves--our inability to plan and act together for the long-run (a century a...
June 16, 2021 at 17:44
Your existence on TPF is probably doomed.
June 16, 2021 at 17:16
Yes, indeed. @"Hanover"'s definition applies to governmental behavior. I'd add application to employer behavior. The balance between the prerogatives ...
June 15, 2021 at 21:46
Governments are often enough the purveyors of authoritarian enforcement, but I would include employers as a category. The workplace is where most peop...
June 15, 2021 at 21:36
I voted yes, but the entire government apparatus, corporate establishment, and social patterns is by no means uniformly authoritarian. Further, it is ...
June 15, 2021 at 02:44
That's the miracle in it! Following the Big Bang, the particles formed into atoms and molecules, made stars that later on exploded, creating still mor...
June 14, 2021 at 04:28
The natural systems that brought about our reality were not, in my opinion, intelligent. Inordinately complex, absolutely. We rate our intelligence as...
June 13, 2021 at 23:36
In reality there is much less intelligence than one would hope for.
June 13, 2021 at 22:39
We have to learn it ourselves -- whether somebody teaches us or whether we use trial and error. The thing is, whatever we learn, we have to fold it in...
June 13, 2021 at 06:10
Your are right on target. There is this very extensive discourse aimed at convincing us that we are free. We are free, for example, to buy whatever we...
June 12, 2021 at 19:45
I think of ethics as more secular and morals more religious. I can ethically have consensual sex with another man where I may not be able to do so mor...
June 12, 2021 at 07:37
Has the individual ever been free? We've been living in ever-growing communities for the last 12,000 years, but even as hunter-gatherers individuals w...
June 11, 2021 at 19:00
Less than a contractual relationship the defining characteristic of capitalism is the accumulation of profit at the expense of the workers who produce...
June 11, 2021 at 07:48
That was a very nice sentence to read.
June 11, 2021 at 06:54
For which we can be exceedingly grateful. Imagine being aware of everything the CNS was doing. You'd have no time to look at porn! Or consider the 'en...
June 11, 2021 at 01:33
The survivors of the Yucatan Impact are birds, not humans, We descend from mammals that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs and survived the catas...
June 11, 2021 at 01:27
More evidence of how nature is out to get us.
June 10, 2021 at 21:46
Factoid: Humans are uniquely allergic to poison ivy. Many birds prefer poison ivy berries. "Wild turkeys, crows, and bobwhite quail are known to feed ...
June 10, 2021 at 20:59
People should be respect established occupancy. BLM has been occupied by a branch of the United States Government for 75 years--long enough to establi...
June 10, 2021 at 20:52
You assume correctly. It's part of the Department of the Interior. Supposing that Black Lives Matter might be asked to alter the moon's orbit is more ...
June 10, 2021 at 06:00
I like that GOATOVER is already suffering an arrow of outrageous fortune lodged in his side. Now to get the goat into a sling GOATOVER is putting a lo...
June 10, 2021 at 02:16
Democrats have donkeys; republicans have elephants (big fat bitter & resentful bellowing lummoxes); Ross Perot had a big sucking sound; Hanover? A cud...
June 09, 2021 at 22:48
"Wisdom" and "wise" may be the sort of word that seems to be meaningful but is very difficult to qualify or quantify, and is, in general, non-inferent...
June 09, 2021 at 20:19
Vote for Hanover, the Discount Goat https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/tP-D7D41W2ff-tiVuk22KNXPFDI=/1500x933/media/img/photo/2020/03/llandudno-goats/...
June 08, 2021 at 20:49
Hmmm, haven't looked at a National Geographic in decades. No. The idea that poor people can be happy comes from experience -- my own experience and ob...
June 08, 2021 at 17:09
Goodness gracious! Almost 30 years since Ross got his charts out and cited that 'giant sucking sound' from 'South of the Border, Down Mexico Way'. Abo...
June 07, 2021 at 21:51
My fave Tracey Ullman skit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTIfU4zMQWY&t=35s
June 07, 2021 at 21:38
There are substantial overhead costs to delivering welfare benefits, just as there are substantial overhead costs in delivering health care, paid for ...
June 07, 2021 at 21:05
I see how it looked like an afterthought. Gay liberation, as it manifested itself in 1969 and into the next decade, was a big deal to me. It is not no...
June 07, 2021 at 20:39
What do you mean by the question? No, I don't think technology trumps gay rights. I could not agree more.
June 07, 2021 at 06:33
I don't think it's a conspiracy either. It's just business as usual. Aka, "If it bleeds it leads." Totally agree. We enjoy watching disasters that don...
June 07, 2021 at 06:28
We wouldn't want to give too much away but actually, blowing things up doesn't take all that much effort. (that was a joke)
June 07, 2021 at 06:24
The corporo-technik elite is more likely to lull you with hope and happy talk rather than despair. Hopelessness and despair are not useful corporate v...
June 07, 2021 at 04:36
You can rest assured that the technocratic / corporate elite is, or would like to control and manipulate the masses for purposes of enhancing their re...
June 07, 2021 at 04:31
It should surprise you. In 2019 29% of students aged 25 to 29 completed a BA degree. The percentage of the population 25 years and older holding at le...
June 07, 2021 at 04:20
Or it could be evil spirits. Don't count them out.
June 07, 2021 at 03:07
Well, we could be -- depending on how you define "our culture" or "my culture". I'd say that the average person who completes high school this year is...
June 07, 2021 at 03:06
You are, actually, probably right. On the face of it, money likely does make people happier. Even a $1,000 emergency fund gives people more security t...
June 07, 2021 at 02:39
Who on earth said it was?
June 07, 2021 at 01:46