@raphjd said in Twitter does NOT suspend liberals spewing hatred:

@bi4smooth

You don't support anti-semitism, but you have no problem with "big tech" allowing it on their platforms. You're funny. I guess you also support banning jews from their platforms because you are a "capitalist".

Big Tech (Google, YouTube [I know Google owns YT], FB, and Twitter) are hard left. You don't understand that because, in your deluded mind, you think that anyone who has extreme TDS is a "conservative libertarian".

There is no evidence that Google makes adjustments to their search algorithms to support or suppress political viewpoints. The burden of proof is on those making the conspiracy-theory claims, not on the company... and there is no such proof.

Facebook and Twitter are largely controlled by their founders (Zuckerburg & Dorsey)... the companies aren't old enough to have responsible & reasonable boards for oversight... what's more, come 2028 or 2032, who's to say either will still be relevant? Remember Geocities? MySpace?

So what is your "remedy"? Eliminate all oversight? Eliminate their ability to cut people off of their platforms? They now have to allow pedophiles? Drug dealers? Pimps? Even if they're brazenly advertising their wares on their platform?

As the owner of a small business, it's never enough to identify a problem: you have to also propose a viable solution! Otherwise, you're just whining!

"The Internet" as a technology is still new, and we're still trying to figure it out... there is much left to come! The "next Twitter" is just around the corner... we just don't know what it'll be yet! (Maybe it'll be Parler!)

EDIT: I didn't address your contention that "free speech rights" are the moral equivalent to antisemitism. What a load of crap.

It is not (and should not be) illegal to post antisemitic things - so long as you're not endorsing or promoting violence against Jews. It's a free country - and even the most awful and hateful ideas are allowed.

But again, what is your remedy? Who chooses what is antisemitic? If I call BiBi Netanyahu an asshole, is that antisemitic?

Calling for (inciting) violence is something that can (and should) be removed... and that's how Dumpy and some his followers got into trouble.

@raphjd said in Liberals - vaccine passports vs voter ID:

@bi4smooth

You, as a liberal, support dead people voting.

Your BFF Mad Maxine has disputed every Repub Presidential election since she has been in Congress, even when it violates the rules because she doesn't have a Senate co-sponsor, to which she said on the House floor "I don't give a damned about the rules".

You have no issue with massive fraud in Broward County for at least 3 decades by your fellow Dems.

You have no issue with the massive fraud in Wayne County, which Steven Crowder did a video of and spells it out.

You have no issue with the voter fraud in Texas

You support any form of voter fraud because of your extreme TDS.

You don't care how dirty or dishonest Biden is, he's a Democrat and you love that in him.

See, you are a liberal. It's your people that had to change the name of the Spanish Flu to justify their hatred of the name "China Flu".

It's like how Scotland officially renamed the "Indian Variant" of C-19 to the "April Variant" so as not to upset the Indians, but have no problem with the "Kent Variant".

All of this stupidity by liberals si why we see anti-woke people calling them the Wu-Flu and Vinda-Flu.

I sneezed, and your out-of-control hyperbolic reaction is that I have the Swine Flu! Get a grip!

• I do not support dead people voting - but there is no EVIDENCE of wide-spread fraud. NONE! Not even in Arizona! If there was, they'd have found it by now!
• I didn't object to Republicans "challenging" the Electoral College vote on Jan 6... it's a legit part of the process! (However, THIS vote count was a little different, and I think the continued persistent challenging AFTER the breach of the Capitol was very bad optics for the party.)
• I live in Florida - we don't do elections very well (see the 2000 election for a Master Class in how to screw up an election!). But dude, this is Florida... home of "Florida Man"! There are "bad apples" in rural Florida that favor republicans, and there are "bad apples" in urban Florida that favor dems... over all, this is a very Purple state that Republicans consistently win in! In case you missed it: Trump won Florida! If there were 500 million extra votes for dems in Broward County in 2020, it wouldn't have changed the outcome of the Presidential election by a single Electoral College vote!
• I don't know anything about voter fraud in Wayne County - but again - you're presuming that all of the fraud was solely in the Presidential balloting... and even if Trump should have won in PA, it wouldn't have been enough to change the outcome! Even if PA and AZ both were "stolen", it's STILL not enough votes to change the outcome! You're "pissing in a fan" dude... and you're getting covered in your own piss!
• I'm not aware of any wide-spread voter fraud in Texas... similar to Fla, Trump won there, so no one is demanding recounts there!
• If either of us is "deranged" about Trump, I would suggest it is you! You adopt and accept-as-truth virtually any conspiracy theory that supports your "vision" - regardless of actual facts. To be clear: it's not the responsibility of the people running the elections to PROVE there was no fraud (you usually cannot prove a negative)... rather, it is incumbent on those making the claim of fraud to PROVE that there actually WAS fraud - in sufficient levels as to potentially change the outcome. And, other than in the media - where lying and hyperbole are legal - there has been no evidence presented to-date. Specifically, in all of those court challenges, no evidence was ever even provided to the courts! The lawyers wouldn't do it because they knew they had no facts.
• I'm happy that the Conservative cause, and the Republican Party made gains - surprising gains - in 2020. I'm not sad Trump lost - but that's because I didn't like HIM, not because I abandoned conservative values!

EDIT: You apparently take issue with my reference in another post to the 1918 Flu pandemic - for not calling it the Spanish Flu. For the record, it's referred to in most Scientific papers as the 1918 Flu, and not "Spanish Flu" - mainly because it was called the "Spanish Flu" in those days for political (global-political and military) reasons, not because it originated there.

I call the 2020 pandemic the COVID-19 pandemic because that's what it's referred to as in Scientific journals - albeit, not in politicized ones. I personally don't thing medicine should be politicized.

@raphjd said in Twitter does NOT suspend liberals spewing hatred:

@bi4smooth

Liberal "big tech" act in collusion against conservatives.

You support any liberal BS, no matter how insane.

You support businesses de-personing wrong thinkers, even when they have not broken the rules. You also support rampant anti-semitism on social media because it's from the liberal blue check marks.

You have defended BLM and their riots.

I don't know who you think you're talking about:

• I don't care if Twitter wants to have fewer subscribers by angering Trumpites - any more than I care if Parler wants to have fewer subscribers by kicking out liberals! It's their business, and they answer to their customers and stakeholders, not to me! (Capitalism anyone?)
• I don't believe that "all of big tech" is liberal (or conservative) - I think most o them just want to make more money
• I don't support businesses "de-personing wrong thinkers" (what does that even mean?) - see below...
• I do not support antisemitism in any form. I generally support Jewish people and Jewish causes... my children attended a Jewish pre-school, and my father was a cantor in a Jewish Synagogue when I was growing up! (Where the hell did you get the idea I'm antisemitic?)
• I have defended BLM's right to protest - I have never supported rioting, nor do I particularly support much of the BLM "platform" - but I do think that - in this free country - they have the right to protest, and I also think some of the things they protest against are legit. But it's not an "in for a penny, in for a pound" kind of thing! I can agree that US policing is out of control and largely racist - without agreeing that the solution is to do away with policing entirely (or any of the wacko-liberal ideas they espouse).

Finally, you have proven yourself to be pretty lousy at doing your own inventory - I would respectfully ask that you refrain from taking mine! You clearly have missed the mark this time!

@pengkuang said in Bookmarks missing and suddenly logging out while in forums:

@bi4smooth said in Bookmarks missing and suddenly logging out while in forums:

The issue self-resolves

Thanks to reply. How does it self-resolve?

On my PC, 10 times (spread over 10 days) I visit the forum, this issue appears 10 times and never auto resolves.

At least for me (and everyone else I've heard from), if you just wait about 20 seconds after you get the notice that the connection is lost, it restores itself.

@raphjd said in Liberals - vaccine passports vs voter ID:

@bi4smooth

"1918 Flu" ?! You clearly are a liberal.

I have to wear a mask under law, despite being fully vaccinated. Well, technically I don't as I'm exempt, but I don't want to be brutalized by cops breaking UK human rights laws.

Clearly, you are the furthest left "conservative/libertarian" there is.

Your extreme TDS allows you to ignore voter fraud because Trump lost. Your party has disputed every election where the elected President was a Repub, since 1980 and some before. Let's not forget, you defended people from your party claiming voter fraud because they lost while slagging off Trump for doing the same. It's your party that is trying to prevent recounts and audits.

NO. Liberal media has not been hard on Biden, other than to say he's not far enough left, but in the most limp wristed way.

There was a proper time for recounts and audits - and that time expired in December, 2020. There comes a time when you need to accept your losses.

But I'll repeat for the umpteenth time: Republicans didn't lose, TRUMP did!

• Republicans were supposed to lose ground in the House .... not so fast! We actually GAINED seats! Nearly enough to oust Pelosi! (We will in 2022)
• Republicans were supposed to lose the Senate - by up to SIX seats... not so fast! We actually wound up in a DRAW (and, I would argue only because Trump riled up the Dems in GA, helping them win BOTH seats!)
• Republicans were supposed to lose State Houses across the country... not so fast! We actually made GAINS in the State Legislatures!.... and before you poo-poo that, let me remind you that THESE Legislatures (in most states) draw the new Congressional districts!

LITERALLY

the only real race in 2020 that Republicans under-performed in was the Presidential one - and Trump worked very hard to ensure that that was about HIM and not the Party. Take away the Republicans who wouldn't vote for him, and he likely wins! Hell, take away all the Republicans who voted AGAINST Trump, and he may even have won the POPULAR vote!

Finally, if you look at the numbers, while COVID-19 pandemic will have killed more people than the 1918 Flu pandemic did, the numbers are remarkably close (for now)... and the World population is a LOT higher now... so as a percentage of population, it won't have been AS DEVASTATING. (Not that it hasn't been a terrible event, just not as awful as the 1918 Flu pandemic!)

I think its time you faced facts:

You backed a loser!

@jsl76 said in Twitter does NOT suspend liberals spewing hatred:

Actually, no. When Parler took off a few months ago, it was de-listed from both Apple and Google's app stores, and Google AWS banned Parler from using its back-end infrastructure. "Build your own platform" only works when the Leftists in charge of the AdTech ecosystem allow it. It's ridiculous and intellectually dishonest, given the Parler situation, to claim that private companies ought to compete when they're not allowed to access the infrastructure to compete in the first place.

You couldn't be MORE wrong:

• Parler was not de-listed on Android's "store" at all, but Apple DID de-list them - but not for politics... when they were de-platformed, they became in violation of Apple's agreements.
• Not being in the Android "store" (unlike Apple) doesn't stop people from using or installing the app... Android is an "open" platform (unlike Apple). Put the installer on your homepage, and users can install it on Android phones - it's just not as EASY as-if it was on the store. (But to repeat - it was never removed from the Android store - only Apple's)
• Parler was de-platformed by AWS - which stands for Amazon Web Services... it should be obvious that they're not affiliated with Google . Indeed, they are fierce competitors in the "cloud" marketplace! (Your mistake was equivalent to calling Chevy a Ford product vs. a GM one).
• Parler was de-platformed by Amazon also because they were in violation of their terms of service. Amazon warned Parler of their impending status, gave them chances to "cure" the problems, and eventually even warned them of their impending loss of service...
• Instead of migrating to another Cloud Provider (like Microsoft Azure, Google, IBM, Oracle, or at least 2-dozen other LARGE corporations - not to mention literally hundreds of smaller competitors!), Parler chose to "play the victim", and pursue an idiotic "sue for specific performance" strategy in the courts. (Look it up - suing for "specific performance" is one of the hardest cases to make in US courts.... they might have gotten damages had they won, but they'd NEVER have been able to FORCE AWS to host them!)
• After Parler found no relief in the Courts, they eventually did exactly that: migrating their platform to a mid-sized provider called SkySilk. (Where they are today!)

And, to be clear, I do not support "liberal" platforms... I do support private companies having the right to refuse service to people and organizations that are not "protected" by special laws. This is the flip-side of "freedom" - you have the freedom to choose any provider, and providers have the freedom NOT to service you if they don't want to!

BUT!....

If you want to get mad at Amazon, strap your boots on! They just over-paid for MGM - and there is some speculation that the reason they overpaid by so much (more than 150% of the estimated value of the company by some accounts) was to ensure that they got their hands on the "The Apprentice" library - which includes all of the unused video, where according to many former contestants and "guest stars" of the show, there is ample footage of Trump being a complete racist, white-supremacist ass.

I don't know if such footage exists, or even if it does, whether it would politically damage Trump... but I do know that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos paid all that money for the videos AND is now planning to step down as CEO in July... which will free him up to do pretty much anything he wants - he's one of the richest men in the world! And Trump pretty much pissed him off more than once, so we just may be looking at a 'clash of the titans" being setup!

@raphjd said in Twitter does NOT suspend liberals spewing hatred:

Twitter is filled with anti-semetic tweets and the accounts are still active.

Even blue checkmark accounts are doing and not a peep from Twitter.

Twitter is a private company.

But, you have options:

• Choose another platform, or
• Start your own competing platform (clearly you think there is a market for it!), or
• build-a-bridge and get over it!

Of course, I know the course you will choose... the 4th option

• do nothing, just whine about it!

There are known issues with the forum site. It is believed that the issue is with the load-balancer service (CloudFlare).

The issue self-resolves, so it is not a high-priority item to the admins.

@lololulu19 said in Summer time asphalt temps:

@raphjd While the IDEA of that sign is very helpful, it is not that accurate. For instance.. it is not air temperature that is the issue, but whether or not the SUN is beating down on the asphalt (or concrete). For instance.. let's say it is 90 degrees F out.. That is certainly hot, but not deadly. If you stand on asphalt that is in the SHADE of a tree or otherwise not being blasted by the sun, it is not that hot.. but if it is being exposed to the sun, it will fry your bacon! Air temperature is not the critical factor. Also, if you stand on the grass - even if the grass is exposed to direct sunlight, it doesn't get that hot. And.. if something is wet.. you know it is not over 212 F.. because if it was, that water would evaporate. The temperature would not rise above 212 F until all the water was gone. Likewise, if you see fresh water in a lake.. you know that the water is at least 32 F. It cannot be colder than 32 F until the water is frozen to ice.

This is the problem when people know a little science...

• It is certainly true that air temperature alone does not determine the temp of asphalt: BUT
• if you want to get technical, it also depends heavily on the kind and color of the surface,
• it also depends heavily on the angle of incidence of the sun: the sun hitting the asphalt at noon is very different from the same sun, at the same temperature, at 6pm. Similarly, tropical climes (where the sun is higher in the sky) will see hotter temps than those at more northern (or, in the Southern Hemisphere, southern) latitudes... and for the same reason: angle of incidence.

BUT: if you don't get lost in the numbers,

the CONCEPT is valid and the WARNING is poignant!

But, your other science facts are also off base:

• water CAN be at temps above 100-C (212-F)... WELL ABOVE! Super-heated water is common, so long as it is stagnant (as it might well be - say, in a puddle on asphalt!) Read more here
• water can also be cooled to well under 0-C (32-F), and again, in stagnant water this is quite common. Ask anyone who lives in a far-Northern climate: a still pond can be well under the freezing point ... throw a rock into such a pond and it will turn solid in a matter of seconds! (It's REALLY cool to watch!)

I've said from the beginning that, for every study you find in support of circumcision, you can find another against it... in both cases, the logic is usually a stretch.

I stand by my argument:

• circumcision does little-to-no harm
• circumcision has few, if any, real benefits
• arguments both for and against are "weak"...

I consider it equivalent to getting a tattoo... very few people have adverse reactions to getting a tattoo, it is seldom of any real benefit to the "wearer", but the decision to get one is essentially permanent.

The biggest difference is that most circumcisions are done to babies - the child has no say... would we allow parents to cover their child in tattoos? (Actually, it would be perfectly legal! Same as circumcision!)

Finally, you completely missed the point about the circumcision-rates:

• higher rates in N Africa and the Middle East are due almost entirely to religious reasons, not economic ones. But these countries are NOT leaders in medical fields, so IF there was a solid medical basis for circumcising infant males, this isn't the part of the world we would expect to see "movement" in the circumcision rates
• lower rates (that is, rates getting lower) in N America and Europe - where medical science is a "strong suit" would be expected to be on the rise -- IF there was a solid medical basis...

@raphjd said in Liberals - vaccine passports vs voter ID:

@bi4smooth

Just so we are clear, I wear a mask and have been fully vaccinated.

We are in agreement there - I have been vaccinated (Pfizer) since March (I was vaccinated under a US Federal program, so the age restrictions didn't apply to me)... and I still mask up when going in public.

• It's still a protection - just like wearing a seatbelt even when I'm driving on private roads with no other cars!
• It sets a good example to others
• It's no big deal! As I've often related: underwear is more uncomfortable to me than a mask!

Not surprisingly, now that people like the CDC are saying that we don't need masks in "nearly all" situations if we have been fully vaccinated, we are told by our masters that the formerly beloved agencies can't be trusted.

That may be true where YOU live, but HERE, in the nut-job capital of the world (home of the infamous: Florida Man!), we're "standing down" rather reasonably... some businesses are still requiring masks, some are making them optional for customers - but keeping their staff masked, others are dropping the whole thing and going full "bare naked faces" all over again.
And, to be clear: as long as the case numbers keep dropping, I'm cool with that... That's freedom, baby!

But, to be equally clear: if the numbers reverse and start to go up, I'm all for mandating masks again! I've never been a proponent of the lockdowns - I think that's overkill and tantamount to the cure being worse than the disease...

IF WE PLAY OUR CARDS RIGHT, we could be getting out of this pandemic with world-wide deaths roughly equivalent to the 1918 Flu (albeit, we have a much higher population).

If you support businesses having the right to demand ID and mask mandates, I guess you support RFRA. If so, then you should demand that businesses be allowed to discriminate against anyone for any reason. RFRA only allows discrimination against LGBTs.

Clearly you did not read the part of my post where I LITERALLY guessed your ridiculous response, and pre-debunked it! Thanks for your careful reading!

So, go back... and re-read this:

And PLEASE! Lets not equate "wearing a mask" with being gay, black, asian, or some other minority! You can "cure" the mask issue in 10 seconds, you cannot "cure" those other faults (if you want to call them that)...

As for Voter ID, it's not hard to get a state ID. The claim that it's racist toward blacks is BS because they live in areas where there are far more DMVs than in the country where whites tend to live.

You are completely drunk on right-wing media tropes, aren't you! Geeze! Requiring Gov't ID be presented at the time of voting, requiring absentee ballots be notarized, preventing early voting on Sundays... they are targeted towards MINORITIES (not Blacks in particular) - because their exit polling states that these are the ways that majority-minority populations vote!

Look, let's suppose we looked at how everyone voted - and then realized that Democrats voted in higher percentages in precincts where the voting place was in a Church... so, we outlaw Churches from being polling places! (Don't want to mix church and state, you know!) That doesn't mean Democrats can't vote in other places! But it's wrong to put in new rules like that solely because people who voted against you chose to vote that way!

Look - The solution to losing elections is simple: get MORE people to vote FOR your candidates! It should NOT be get fewer people to vote for your opponent! THAT'S a fraudulent approach!

I know your liberal media won't show any voter fraud unless it's pro-Trump. Only a buffoon would think otherwise.

If the "Florida Man" super-auditors (looking for bamboo in the paper! ROFL) still haven't found anything, it's just not there! The next thing is they're going to find evidence of alien technology altering ballots! The martians were against Trump!

Look, the Liberal Media is absolutely talking shit about the Biden Administration. I don't need to go into details here, but the media in general ALWAYS finds fault with the people IN POWER, and less so the people NOT IN POWER. After all, you hunt where the beasts are, no?

You might want to look at Steven Crowder on YouTube. He's done some videos on voter fraud.

Again, read more carefully. I haven't claimed there was no fraud at all... I have claimed that there was no significant voter fraud.

The truth is, we get better and better at rooting out fraud in our elections, and with few exceptions, the amount of fraud attempted in each election gets lower and lower. And 2020 was no different! Republicans made strange and wonderful gains in the House (it was supposed to be a gain for Dems, remember?), and nearly kept the Senate (it was supposed to swing to the Dems by as many as 6 seats, remember?)

Long story short, we won a LOT of races we weren't supposed to - and Trump still lost!

Maybe it wasn't a Republican messaging problem, but rather a personal thing... after all, if there was one thing Trump was famous for - before, during, and after his term - it's making it all about himself!

Maybe, just maybe, enough Republicans down-ballot decided the Great Divider was just too much, and decided to vote AGAINST him, but FOR the party!

There goes Occam's Razor again....

@raphjd said in Summer time asphalt temps:

@flozen

It's a sign that was posted to the FB page for my hometown.

I would love to see more of these signs.

Wow! Another topic @raphjd and I agree upon! First circumcision, and now this!

It's criminal how careless some people can be about their pets!

They leave them in locked cars (where temps can soar to over 140 degrees Farenheit in less than 10 minutes here in Florida!).

They "walk" them on hot asphalt, clueless to the fact that your shoes insulate you - they have no shoes! (I love the sign above! - I snapped a copy! I'll get some made and posted around my parts!)

They put them outside on hot days with no fresh water or food...

The list of DUMB things people do to their pets is endless... and usually simply because the dumb pet owner just doesn't THINK! Most of these pet owners aren't evil, just stupid!

@anke said in Testing the New forums:

Testing to make my first post in the new forums

Welcome to the Forum - a generally friendly place, so long as you stay out of the politics section... but, don't confuse the forum with Grindr or anything... we're all geographically spread out, so there isn't much chance of ever physically meeting anyone on here...

While I'm certain there is an exception to that... there's ALWAYS an exception!

Again, welcome... jump in with both feet! Read and reply! Ask questions! Make requests for YOUR favorite kinds of porn!

OOPs, I forgot to cover the Voter-ID part of the topic...

My Libertarian stripes are going to show here:

Voters need to identify themselves.. sure, it's core to the running of a smooth and fair election.
However, there should be no requirement of a Gov Issued ID, or even a Picture ID! just to vote!

If you have the full name and address, virtually any form of ID (Credit card, school ID, work ID) that shows your name and address - AND you are a registered voter AND your signature is a match, you should at least be able to make a "provisional ballot"... that is, you can vote - but we're going to scrutinize your claim of identity more than usual - in particular, looking for duplication, death, or any other kind of fraud.

What's more, to vote this kind of a provisional ballot, we must be allowed to take your photo and fingerprints. I'm OK with that, so long as the photos and fingerprints are destroyed after use, and not entered into any Gov database without authorization and approval of the voter.

We have ABYSMAL voting rates in the US... the LAST thing we should be doing is making it HARDER to vote!

Ballot harvesting (where someone goes someplace like a nursing home and collects ballots to be returned) isn't a bad thing! But it DOES deserve more scrutiny: you should have to have permission (from the Supervisor of Elections) to do it, provide notice of where and when you're going to do it, and observers (from all parties) should be allowed to monitor it to ensure that no voter "coaching" or intimidation is present. (The solution to the potential for fraud is to make it planned and monitored, not to disenfranchise the people it's designed to help!)

Also, before you start putting into place OBSTACLES to voting - in the name of preventing fraud - you damned well outta be able to show fraud! ACTUAL fraud! that you'll be preventing!

... and before you go there, there was no significant fraud in 2020! Trump lost, fair and square! How is it you claim his loss was fraudulent, but all the other unexpected Republican wins were perfectly legit? I'll tell you why: your definition of fraud is "my candidate lost"... and that's just bull manure!

Was there a conspiracy against Trump in 2020? There surely was! 76 million people all came together to elect someone ELSE President - many voting, not FOR Joe Biden, but rather AGAINST Donald Trump!!
There was also a conspiracy afoot to re-elect Trump! 74 million people all came together to support him!

What you call a conspiracy, I call an election! And the fact that your candidate (or mine) lost isn't an indication of fraud, it's an indication of a lost election! For there to be fraud, you have to be able to show proof of that fraud!

Aside: How long will it take those "Florida Man" auditors in Arizona to find something to point to fraud? If it was there, don't you think they'd have found it by now?

@raphjd said in Liberals - vaccine passports vs voter ID:

@bi4smooth

Didn't you say you were a conservative-libertarian? You sound like you want us to live in 1930s Germany. Maybe you have been sniffing Pelosi's panties too much.

In the EU, and the UK since they didn't change the law after Brexit, it violates people's human rights to be forced to disclose their medical status. Not surprisingly, the UK police get extremely heavy-handed breaking this particular human right. Even the C-19 laws clearly state that you are not required to disclose your exemption for not wearing a mask and/or getting the shot, but the police don't give a fuck.

BTW, if your fellow liberals don't trust the CDC when it suits them, then why should I? They've been quite political over C-19 and they also have extreme TDS, for an org that isn't supposed to be political.

You poor thing... you can't recognize sarcasm worth a damn, can you!

I'm in favor of vaccination, but not forced vaccination.

I'm in favor of businesses being allowed to favor (or even deny service) to vaccinated/unvaccinated people as they see fit, but not the Government doing that...

I'm in favor of a National ID card, but not a mandatory one

I'm NOT in favor of requiring everyone (esp latin-looking people) to carry identification proving citizenship.
I'm am in favor of businesses being allowed to ask you for identification for any purpose they might want to... for example: asking young-looking people to show ID to purchase alcohol.
I'm NOT in favor of police (or any other Government agency) forcing you to identify yourself against your will.

• If you've broken the law, they should arrest you. If not, then any other interaction with law enforcement is voluntary and optional. This goes for Vaccination ID, as well as any other form of ID.

For what it's worth, I was (and remain) in favor of businesses enforcing mask-mandates on their employees and customers... if your grocery requires a mask and you object, go to another grocery! If there isn't a grocery that will serve you without a mask, you still have 2 options:

• Open a grocery store and don't require people to wear masks - there's a niche market there!
• Wear the fuckin' mask! It's MORE uncomfortable to wear underwear than it is a mask!

But (you might notice a pattern here), I'm NOT in favor of the Government mandating masks in places they have no business exerting their will. Places like court houses, police and fire stations, public libraries, etc. should be allowed to require masks - so long as they make accommodation to provide SOME level of service to people who object. (e.g. you cannot tour the fire house without a mask, but you can watch a video of a fire house tour instead! Or, you cannot come into the Library without a mask, but you can request a book and we'll bring it to the door, or mail it to you!)
IMPORTANT: Government should have to make accommodation... not so businesses! If they want to just say no to clients who refuse to wear masks, they should have that option! It's their business!

And PLEASE! Lets not equate "wearing a mask" with being gay, black, asian, or some other minority! You can "cure" the mask issue in 10 seconds, you cannot "cure" those other faults (if you want to call them that)...

@chanelkokoro said in Party of family values part 1 :

So if circumcision is such a great and wonderful thing, perhaps you can explain why it is mostly prevalent in Northern Africa and the Middle East - 2 areas of the world most highly regarded as leaders in human disease prevention, hygiene, and general excellence in all things intellectual and science-based! (Proof: look at all the lunar and martian landings these countries account for! Not to mention the UNCOUNTABLE numbers of Nobel and other prizes for science and medicine they have achieved!) (end sarcasm)...

Indeed, it's such a great and wonderful thing, the prevalence of it in America (US) has dropped from about 80% in the 1950s to roughly 50/50 in the 2000's... those dumb American parents!

Honestly, and I know I'm repeating myself here, if there was any REAL evidence of any SIGNIFICANT benefit to circumcising male children (or female - gotta include @raphjd here), don't you think there would be world-wide campaigns to get it done?

The FACTS are that STD rates, urethra infections, and rates of most other genital-based diseases and problems in the US/Canada, Australia, Japan, S. Korea, Russia (as much as is reported), and Europe are statistically so even - despite the WIDELY disparate rates of circumcision (e.g.: virtually never done in Asian countries!) - that the BEST you can say is that while circumcision does not appear to help, it also appears to do no harm either!

Indeed, the fact that it cannot really be shown to be either helpful or harmful is precisely why it remains "optional" around the world.

Personally, I would infer from the rate data that mass-circumcision is indeed cultural (based on religious and ancient misconceptions)... being that N Africa and the Middle East are far more religiously-oriented and controlled than the rest of the world.

That said, I'll admit that I have only observation to backup that assertion...

Check out the circumcision rates around the world here. (While I don't often cite Wikipedia as a "trusted source", this article has more than 60 references to backup its data).

Boom chaka lacka! Welcome to you both!

Download some free stuff, then start looking for ways to contribute!

• upload new content (remember to SEARCH first - it has to be new!
• seed what you take

@raphjd said in Liberals - vaccine passports vs voter ID:

Why is it that liberals are against voter ID but they fully support vaccine passports?!

GOV. BROWN BLOCKS OREGON FROM CDC DEMASK RULE reads one headline. In typical liberal fashion, she said that she would follow what the CDC says, but as soon as the CDC says we can unmask, she doesn't care what the CDC says.

She also won't allow people to unmask, per CDC ruling, until she has in place a legally mandated vaccine passport system.

Not surprisingly, she is against voter ID laws.

I suggest you combine the two: you must show proof of ID AND proof of COVID-19 Vaccine...

both

In order to vote in 2022!

@vmalar said in Seychelles - most vaccinated coutry - highest rate of C-19 positives:

@raphjd Isn't a vaccine a small dose of the virus so your immune system can defeat it easily? I'm not a doctor or anything but I'm wondering if the test uses the same technology that vaccines use (detection is part of vaccine right?) and it makes no sense to freak out about it.

Firstly

NONE of the Covid vaccines used around the world today use actual (usually termed "dead") virus...

• The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use a NEW technology using Modified RNA to "spur" the immune system to build an antibody response to a protein specific to COVID-19. The technology is the result of YEARS of study by Moderna - for whom, this is actually the first commercial vaccine they have ever made!
• The J&J and AZ vaccines are created by inserting DNA from the COVID-19 virus into "dead" cold virus cells (the common cold is ALSO a coronavirus!)

Protection rates of the "traditional" vaccines vary, but none come even close to the 95%+ protection rates of the Pfizer and Moderna treatments. Some (e.g. the Russian Sputnik) have protection rates at or below 50%.

The issue for many (esp. the J&J being used in the US) is that, while they don't have such a great record for preventing infection at all - they have a great record for preventing hospitalizations. (In more direct terms, you may catch COVID-19 after being vaccinated with some of these inoculations, but you won't be hospitalized (or die) from it!

Secondly

It matters (very much) which vaccine you get as to how much protection you get. The statistic that matters in Seychelles isn't positive results, it's hospitalizations and deaths.

@justanedflan said in Hello y'all:

Hello!
I'm new to Private Trackers but there seems to be a really good community here and a lot of content so just figured i'd say hi!

Welcome to our Tracker - loads of good loads in here!

If you're a collector, hopefully you'll post some content that's not already here. If not, hopefully you'll share your downloaded content and "play fair"