The Hall of Fire

we are being called as a culture to finally listen, respectfully, thoughtfully, sympathetically, to the stories of these victims - but then what? Those who come forward with these stories don't simply want to be heard, they want consequences of some sort for those they are accusing. What should be ...

Guys. "Dropping the mic" implies that the conversation is over, and that's literally the last thing I would like. There's a lot of conversation to be had around this topic, a lot of misunderstanding and assumption flying around, a lot of anger. That stuff's gonna keep festering and begetti...

People who want to turn this moment into "believe women by default ", or "believe all women" need to take a deep breath and a really large step back. That's not what it is about. It is simply about affording women the same benefit of the doubt that men enjoy. Attaching the same g...

Their minds aren't addled. They're pretty sharp because they know exactly that: this is how they galvanize the Trump base and push back against any Democratic inroads in the mid-terms. The tendency of swaths of liberals to pooh-pooh conservatives and treat them like dumb children certainly helped cr...

Why would anyone want to become an actual citizen if they can legally live and work in the US ( I assume for as long as they want, you don't say ) without becoming one? Just to be able to vote? Most citizens don't even vote.

Both Republicans and Democrats are now plagued by the realities of a two-party system: you cannot represent everybody's views with only two parties.

Gasoline ethanol mandates are beyond dumb.

Gosh, I don't know. CPS? I am no expert but I think the general idea there is to try to do what is best for the kids, though of course they screw it up very badly sometimes - it is easy to find news reports about their screw-ups. That said, separating a kid from ... to take an example ... physically...

Republicans in Congress refuse to do anything about American children gunned down in schools. Why would they lift a finger in this case? These kids aren’t even American, and that is apparently all that matters to their base.

Plenty of ballots and a nice, quiet, efficient facility at mine. Voter turnout did seem kind of light, which is to be expected for mid-terms I suppose. They had electronic machines in 2016 but this time it was all paper.

I had a dream a few weeks back where I was an advisor to Donald Trump and spent all my time trying to advice him, but he wouldn't listen to me. This happened the night after I had a puffy Cheeto craving and ate entirely too many out of a party size bag. True story. Túrin Turambar - your dream sounds...

I mulled this over a little bit. Let’s see - the shooter was a female ethnic immigrant vegan Muslim in a state with very strict gun control laws from a country “on the list” and this is presented as a reason for the story to be “buried”. What about the San Bernadino shooter? Female ethnic immigrant ...

Let's see ... Non-Caucasian of any gender: terrorist White male: lone wolf / troubled young man / mentally unstable individual Female of any race, if unaccompanied by a male accomplice: domestic violence / spurned lover Did I get the media / popular discourse stereotyping of gun violence right?

I have a post that’s been sitting in a text file on my computer for more than six months. I wrote it at some point while reading this thread, but I haven’t posted it because I feel like I’m talking to a wall when I have this conversation, and I just get sick of that wall. And even when I do try to t...

I will read that article after work, since this topic interests me a lot, too. For now I will blather some quick and handwavey thoughts instead. One thing to consider: automation ( and also medical advancements, including basic understanding of hygiene ) have helped lead to population explosion ( ch...

yov , those unemployment numbers are ... well, not exactly a lie, but not an indication that people are gainfully employed, either. I live in a poor part of America and I can tell you that there are vast swaths of unemployed, poor people here. California's Central Valley and other rural areas accum...

I believe Al 's post refers to your post just above ... Congress, by failing to execute their duty to be a check on the executive branch, is effectively arguing that a well-organized militia may be needed to pry them out and replace them with a Congress that would do its duty. And the irony is that ...

I deleted it :oops: I might repost it again later but it was very hard for me to even get up the courage to post it in the first place. The last time I posted something on this topic I was privately attacked, extremely heatedly, for what I wrote, and in the end it was too stressful for me to contemp...

Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who was not at the bipartisan meeting, slammed Trump's statement. "We're not ditching any constitutional protections simply because the last person the President talked to today doesn't like them," he said. https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/28/politics/due...

Yes, but it is these small pockets of rot that is spoiling the whole barrel of apples. I'm no longer of the mind to go "Ah, just a few loonies, it will be OK, what can they do?" when I hear about these things. That kind of thinking helped get Donald J Trump right into the White House, and ...