Posts made by cteavin

There's not much activity going on in the forums here, so I'm posting a few topics to see if I can't goad you all into some conversation.

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This is a study published in Scientific American. My feeling is the article must be wrong but the evidence, as they present it, seems solid. Either way, so you agree with it? If the article is too long for you to read, what are your thoughts on the correlation of guns and violence?

Myself, when I lived in Los Angeles I wouldn't allow a gun in my house. These days, were I to still live in the states, I'd want one.

Here's the article.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/more-guns-do-not-stop-more-crimes-evidence-shows/

There's not much discussion here. It's kinda boring, so I'm posting a few topics to see if I can't goad you all into some conversation.

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What is the argument AGAINST allowing insurance to be sold across state lines? What is the status of your personal health care plan?

Me, I live in Japan. I pay something like 100USD per month for unlimited coverage. As of today, I've used it like once. (I don't get sick.) I get yearly checkups and go to the dentist for a cleaning annually, all free.

(Is that a Rick and Morty reference? If so,  :hug: )

Um, no. Just people. Not stuff.

TPBM thinks Catlyn Jenner is a "hero".    :blond:

@marsram08:

He helped open the floodgates to sexuality as a public topic. By making it public, it gave way for us to express ourselves without being smacked over the head too much, which then led to proper sex education. Sometimes I wish our forefathers had the knowledge that it probably wasn't a good idea to literally screw like rabbits without the proper preparations or the consequences for being too "promiscuous".
We'd probably still have John Holmes today.

Of course he didn't do it overnight, in the 60's one of the raunchiest songs you could hear was "I wanna hold your hand", and John Lennon thought he was feeling like a modern day rapper when he says "gland" instead of "hand".

It's not about his sexuality for me, its about sex as a whole.

I think you're giving him, the individual, too much credit. He did what he did for profit. The end result might have been a rethinking of sex but that was incidental.

Still, I can understand remembering the man's younger libido and what it did for the country but he grew into a letcher that thought it was okay for an 80+-year-old to pursue teenagers. I'm far right of an SJW but that's wrong. The gay community all but erased Harry Hay from our histories for doing the same thing with men. In fact, the last article I read about it was titled "The Trouble With Harry  Hay" which was what place he should have in our narrative given who he became at the end of his life.

Tundra – I love the snow and winter much more than summer.

Marvel movies (Ironman, etc) or DC movies (Batman, etc)?

@aadam101:

The reason he won't show his tax returns is simple and it has nothing to do with Russia.  He has been lying about how much money he has his entire life.  He went around for years telling people that his 58 story Trump Tower had 68 floors.  He over exaggerates everything to make up for the fact that he has such a tiny penis.

The reason he showed some of his 2005 returns is because The Apprentice started in 2004.  He likely did very well in 2005.  It was probably the most successful year of his entire career.

Trump is a failed business man time and time again.  He had to turn to reality TV to make a living.  Things got so bad at one point he had to resort to selling steaks at the mall.  He was quite successful at being a reality star.  He and Honey Boo Boo's mom have had a remarkably similar career.

You didn't answer my question as to what you thought of my previous explanation.

What you're saying about Trump not having the money he claims to have had feels right; however, we shouldn't be arguing from our feelings but facts. Trump does lie/exaggerate (readers can choose the word they like) and he doesn't get called out by his base or GOP because what he says feels right, so don't go down that rabbit hole or you become part of the problem.

What we do know is that Trump's name is his brand and that he sells his brand. That's what Trump University was all about, him selling his name to a company that swindled money from citizens. Trump "peddling" steaks is the same thing. It fits in the context of his show.

As to "failed businessman" that's an opinion that hardly matters now. He's the President. One thing not mentioned enough is that the US economy is booming. I, myself, am profiting from it (I'm invested in mutual funds, etc.), so to me he doesn't feel like a failed businessman at all.

But as I said previously, he's not going to release his tax returns because …

What's really shocking is that she appears to be a student at UC Riverside. She could barely speak coherent English and she's at a UC school, not a community college? Wow. That point system is really not working.

Anyway, number one reason why Dreamers need to go, right there. Any remaining sympathy I had for them just left.

How did you know? It's nearing 2am here.

TPBM has a busy weekend planned.

Oh, that's hard. There are benefits to both. Um, I'm going to choose smooth because you don't get hairs in your mouth.

Have love but be poor or have no love but be filthy rich?

Ha! Nope. I wanted to buy one and my friends called an intervention.

TPBM is going to purchase the iPhone X.

@Zeitgeist:

@cteavin:

@Zeitgeist:

Do you happen to have that coconut curry recipe? I'm always on the hunt for new ways to cook food.

Do you have some more accurate measurements? How much chicken? I know that we shouldn't quantify everything, but I'm a big recipe guy and like to know what to do step-by-step because cooking can be stressful ngl. The more specificity, the better in my opinion.

For that? No. It's just a pinch of this and a pinch of that.

If you go over to my blog there are some curry recipes there with detailed info on how to prepare. In fact, one of my first posts was on Indian curry (I studied cooking in India for six months – my Indian foods are amazing).

The link is in my profile.

https://japantoday.com/category/politics/Osaka-may-end-San-Francisco-sister-city-ties-over-'comfort-woman'-statue

This pisses me off.

Japan has apologized for the comfort women, it has paid reparations, and it's simply tired of this issue being brought up and over. It's no different than blaming the ill-deeds of the Kim family on all Koreans, as they're also Korean.

Modern Japan is not Imperial Japan, and this constant harassment on an issue that Japan has repeatedly apologized for is as unwarranted as placing the blame for North Korean crimes against humanity upon all Koreans.

This idea that Japan has not owned up to its history is nationalist fantasy designed to enrage people.

Curious what you all think.

@nista1:

New episode is out.
Barb is one hot blond. I love the new chick band. Ivy is getting better.
Even Gordon was interesting. The Crane was sexy.
But Bruce was boring - they are rushing the Batman thing.

How much do you wanna bet the Barabara was brought back by Ras Al Ghoul's Lazarus Pit? Did you notice how sane she was? I'm thinking the waters not only brought her back from the dead but fixed the crazy. If I'm right he's behind her operation and wants Barbara to bring Selina into the web to test/torment Bruce. What do you think?

Ivy, wow, it looks like they're going with the green version of her.

Ivy is the one character on the show who's had it the worst. He father was gunned down, she was homeless and alone as a child, was aged prematurely, and has been Penguin's punching bag – and she isn't even old enough to have had her first date. She's still a ten-year-old! Now she just drank some mumbo jumbo and will turn into something green and poisonous. Damn. Sucks to be her.

You think Gordon was interesting? Oh, he pissed me off. And why did they even bother giving him the toxin if he was only going to fight off in a couple of minutes? The Hatter's drugs knocked him on his ass. That was interesting. I hope that means Scarecrow is going to work on a more lethal version of his toxin but then it just becomes a rehash of the Court of Owls plot.

Do you think they're going to let Scarecrow develop his toxin and continue on with the plot for Dark Knight? The subtitle of the season is A Dark Knight. If so, Ras will have to meet Johnathan. I bet Barbara would broker the deal, might even get her crazy back in the process.

I kinda like the Batman progression. It wouldn't have made sense had he not been kidnapped and trained by The Sensei. I thought they fit it in nicely.

Where do you think think the story is going? Falcon? I hope not.

Well, I have balls attached to me, big low hanging balls but I don't know that I'm attached to anyone's balls atm.

TPBM is an agressive top.

I love that episode. Cartman not being into midgets, that still makes me laugh.

Did you watch the NK epiode last week? I fell on the floor laughing.

http://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s04e06-cartman-joins-nambla

@aadam101:

@cteavin:

@aadam101:

@cteavin:

@aadam101:

@cteavin:

@cteavin:

Trump will never eliminate illegal immigration.

1. He married a woman who spit all over Americans when she worked here illegally.
2. You can't grow the economy if you reduce the population.  Immigrants (legal and illegal) buy things.

It seems that you agree with me. Since you say Melania spat all over America by working here illegally then illegal immigrants do the same thing. At the very least you're saying that you disagree with illegal immigration, is that fair to infer?

It's true illegal and legal immigrants make purchases but only legal immigrants pay taxes that build and maintain the infrastructure and economy for long-term stability. Illegal immigrants are more likely to send their earnings back home as remittances and/or save their salary to later take back home.

I don't know of any study that shows the relative effects of legal vs illegal immigration but I'm willing to bet you that the effect of legal immigration is stronger and more long-lasting. In addition, keeping a strong immigration policy emphasizes that the law matters.

@aadam101:

@cteavin:

@aadam101:

He said it right here.  Certainly if these words applied to the last President then they apply to the current President too.

"Why does Obama believe he shouldn't comply with record releases that his predecessors did of their own volition? Hiding something?"

Ah, I see. Thank you.

You're projecting what Trump said about Obama as a statement that he's inditing himself. He said Obama must be dishonest; therefore, Trump implicated himself.

You're smarter than that.

That kind of connection is akin to believing that Trump actually grabbed women by the pussies. I refer back to what I said earlier, what a candidate says during a campaign (a word that describes battles in a war) has to be differentiated from what comes after the election. Like it or not, politicians say all kinds of absurdities and lies during a rally; and this was said in a Tweet in 2012 while Trump was testing the waters to see if he could/should run for the presidency.

What's your opinion about my explanation of why Trump won't release his tax returns?

BTW, here's the tweet aadam101 is referring to.
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/263348204068810752?lang=en

@aadam101:

@cteavin:

Trump is different.  He promised us that he wasn't a politician and he wouldn't behave like one.  For the last nine months all we have seen is him copying everything Obama did.

The black guys peacefully protesting are "son of bitches" but the white Nazis are "fine people"….....tell me again he isn't a racist.....

I don't think that he is a politician. Would a politician Tweet? Does a politician call another countries leader Rocketman? Very little in how Trump has run his presidency has been like a typical politician and he's loudly criticized for it.

I don't understand what you mean by Trump is copying Obama. Trump does seem to be undoing everything Obama did, however.

Trump isn't racist and I'll explain why:

I'm going to assume you're younger than I am. I'm 48. When I came out way back in the mid 80's if and when you saw any news about Gay Pride marches you saw NAMBLA (North American Man-Boy Love Association) under whatever headline the newspapers or TV stations chose. That deliberate association between NAMBLA and LGBT helped further a long-standing stereotype that homosexuals are pedophiles. People feared us because of that. Later, people spat on me because of that, assumed I was molested and therefore gay because of how the media chose to portray us.

When I went to my first pride parade I did see the NAMBLA float, very small and hidden away. No cheers for them, either silence or booing.

You know about what happened in NC because of what the media is showing you. The one loop I kept seeing was a few seconds of white men holding torches saying something like Jews will not replace us. Do you really believe that all of the people attending the protest about the removal of those statues were in that march? I hope this is not what you believe because like those gay pride parades back in the 80's, there were many different kinds of people walking under one umbrella. To walk together does not mean that you fly the same banners, fight the same war. So no, Trump was not a racist in saying there were good people there. What Trump meant and later clarified is that ANTIFA and NAZIs were there an that both need to be blamed.

@aadam101:

Maybe you don't care but Trump does.  He said so himself.  It's obvious he is hiding something…..that's what HE said.

Can you show where he said that? I don't recall him saying that.

I knew way back at the beginning of the 2016 campaign that Trump would never show his tax returns. Why? In making a big deal about Obama's birth certificate candidate Trump, and I quote, said, "I got him [Obama] to show his birth certificate."

That right there said that Trump was playing a power game with the media to get Obama to do something. Trump wasn't going to let anyone bully him into making him show his tax returns. Trump was being an alpha-male and, love him or hate him for it, that play worked, Trump was and is seen as a strong leader walking his own path by his base.

Russia is Trumps Birther controversy: He earned it, but ultimatly it's _fake new_s.

@aadam101, yeah, Trump said all those things. He said a lot of things.

@Frederick, Trump started off his presidency with a number of EO's. The forthcoming EO about healthcare will be as you said, a last option from a do-nothing/deadlocked Congress and Senate.

Most people accept that what a person says before they are elected into public office isn't an indication of how they're going to govern. The Alabama rally Trump recently spoke at, which started this last NFL spat, is a good example. In calling the NFL kneelers "sons of bitches" he was speaking only to his base and that is what his base came to hear.

Trump has repeatedly said that his being able to change his tone is an asset, something that makes him different from his predecessors. He said this when asked about the tone of three different speeches over Veteran's Day.

Ultimately, it's pointless to pull quotes to show Trump's hypocrisy because you can do that to/with anyone. We've all contradicted ourselves, we're just not all on a global stage with video proof and opposition to rub our faces in it.