tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post264833056489013823..comments2024-03-29T06:22:47.638-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: Challenges and ChangesDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger115125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-46771622319102082662016-12-23T15:54:38.183-08:002016-12-23T15:54:38.183-08:00Alfred Differ and Donzelion:
To add a little thing...Alfred Differ and Donzelion:<br />To add a little thing to your argument about whether tax evasion harms people: I think it doesn't harm people directly, but indirectly it does.<br />Look at Greece for an example: tax evasion is so endemic and happens on such a large scale, that the Greek government misses out on a large chunk of income, with all kinds of concequences for their society.<br /><br />I know, onward has been called, but I didn't want to carry this little addition to the next thread.Twomindsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-2990147346419195582016-12-23T15:47:30.179-08:002016-12-23T15:47:30.179-08:00You guys have been amazing. I mean it!
But now o...You guys have been amazing. I mean it!<br /><br />But now onward <br /><br />I mean it this time! (wagging admonishing finger.) Actually in fact, yuou guys can stay down here and do whatever you like! I'll just be onward<br /><br />DO try to spread word about the next blog. It's an important one. (Though most of you had heard bits of it before.)<br /><br />onwardDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-62954903425312036302016-12-23T15:43:10.660-08:002016-12-23T15:43:10.660-08:00@donzelion: I can establish cameras at various poi...@donzelion: I can establish cameras at various points on the perimeter of my vehicle and record the fact that people drive while texting and making calls. If I’m close enough I can get facial features and maybe even a license plate. Run those against DMV records and social media db’s and I can connect the act to a person. There are going to be plenty of ambiguities where someone is looking at their lap and I can’t see the phone in the video that I would have to let go due to the shadow of a doubt, but many would be caught. I could do it. I’ve been tempted and even bought some of the necessary computing equipment. A friend of mine was run down by a kid across the street many years ago before cell phones in cars and I know for a fact the kid and his parents failed any reasonable test of caring what strangers thought of them.<br /><br />We don’t need the police or acts of violence to stop this stuff. We need people who care. I haven’t built the camera rig partly because none of my friends have been killed lately, but also because emergent law hasn’t caught up yet. The social battle is still underway. Since I see significant advances toward self-driving vehicles, though, I suspect my annoyance may be made moot. It would be a good thing not to have to fight about any of it.<br /><br />Oops. Just noticed the onward message. I’ll respond to your tax evasion post on the next one. 8)Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-56984180472291738432016-12-23T15:38:16.679-08:002016-12-23T15:38:16.679-08:00Alfred: a tax evader violates all four cardinal vi...Alfred: a tax evader violates all four cardinal virtues (if your terms follow Plato's chain, through the Catholic church/Aquinas tradition), depending on how and what taxes hey evade and what they do with the savings.<br /><br />A tax evader violates 'prudence' by failing to judge between actions and consequences. Any time the government fails to do some thing that it was created to do, if a tax evader failed to pay his share, he contributed to causing it to fail to do that thing it was supposed to do. <br /><br />A tax evader violates 'justice' by taking benefits of having a government without paying for them (with 'justice' treated in a Greek manner, as meaning 'giving to each what is their due' - not unlike how Jesus treated Caesar's taxes).<br /><br />A tax evader violates 'temperance' if as a result of the evasion, they spend foolishly on immoderate edifices (e.g., if they take the savings to build casinos, bars, and other indulgences, rather than schools/churches, farms, and other public works). Temperance typically relates to controlling appetites - but tax evasion drives risk appetites for certain types of risk (and is intimately linked with other indulgences in appetites).<br /><br />A tax evader violates 'fortitude' by displacing the courage that is required to participate in public affairs to ensure that taxes are well-spent, and replacing it with a cynical cowardice to prevent shifting his personal resources into the public trough and then trying to guide its path.<br /><br />Personally, I like the 'tax evader' discussion more than the 'traffic ticket evader' - because there are issues within taxation that are far-reaching and immediately meaningful. America will never be destroyed by having millions of drivers who foolishly text while driving. But we will be destroyed if we reward tax evaders with power.<br />donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-59887100368867027742016-12-23T15:28:12.320-08:002016-12-23T15:28:12.320-08:00@Paul SB: I’m not arguing for vigilantism. I’m arg...@Paul SB: I’m not arguing for vigilantism. I’m arguing that the motivation for it exists in us all and this points to the distinction between types of law that some Libertarians fail to grasp. As long as we are inclined to take matters into our own hands, some Libertarians are going to be disappointed by what I consider to be a valid argument against their preference for small government. I’m recognizing the validity of an argument against something I would personally prefer, so I encourage progressives to take this as an olive branch. 8)<br /><br />Having said that, I don’t think written law moves the culture. Only emergent law does and we have the causal relationship backward if we say it that way. WE move emergent laws and fight among ourselves while a transition occurs. Toleration of harm done to homosexuals occurred because there were emergent rules in many places that encouraged the harm. Things have changed a bit in some places as the fight over these rules continues. Until we settle the emergent scuffle, though, enforcement of legislation is likely to be uneven at best.<br /><br />Hate legislation makes for an interesting example. Many of us are deeply bothered by violence done to people in protected groups. If we ask for special crime categories and get them, we can argue that something is being done and then avoid committing counter-violence ourselves. That’s a good thing until we realize the special crimes aren’t enforced any better than the ones we probably should have been enforced in the first place. What do we do next? Get violent? Ask for yet more punishment? Devote more effort to catching people? There are a number of dangers along the possible paths ranging from inaction to an endless list of crimes people can commit to the horrors of universal law enforcement technologies. Where I think the Libertarians have a valid point is in arguing against an endless supply of statutes and regulation. ULE is a civilization ending path best avoided even if it means people doing things that provoke vigilantism. Some of them go too far, though. I wish more of us who are a tad more moderate would ameliorate their arguments for change while preserving the useful parts. That won’t happen unless we get into their politics and face them as concerned neighbors.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-67447665019985976922016-12-23T15:24:31.200-08:002016-12-23T15:24:31.200-08:00You guys have been amazing.
now onward DO try to...You guys have been amazing.<br /><br />now onward DO try to spread word about the next blog. It's an important one. (Though most of you had heard bits of it before.)<br /><br />onwardDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-46293617845287955682016-12-23T15:23:44.407-08:002016-12-23T15:23:44.407-08:00Duncan: re 'rules & regulations and people...Duncan: re 'rules & regulations and people not obeying them' - if you substitute tax cheating for 'texting while driving' - you also open the door for a larger consideration: what about rule breakers who, by breaking certain rules, position themselves to become the rulemakers?<br /><br />Take Trump: did he obtain his billions by cheating on his taxes? Nobody can responsibly argue that he did so without seeing his tax returns (alas, his proponents are not required to be responsible). But it is absolutely certain that his tax savings expanded the pool of funds available to him for his political campaign (and similarly with other Republicans). It is no accident that tax-exempt churches are the organizational foundation of the Republican party in every rural district.<br /><br />Most rules get broken for convenience (texting while driving); some get broken for more tangible benefit (e.g., murder while performing a burglary). Most of the time, our laws and regulations look to prohibit not just a certain type of behavior, but behavior performed for a certain reason. If X 'intended' to hit Y, then he's guilty of one kind of wrong (an intentional tort); if X did not intend to hit Y, but did so negligently, then he's guilty of a different kind of wrong (a negligence tort), and if X not only intended to hit Y, but the intention was based on malice, he may even have committed yet another kind of wrong (a crime, and one which the state must intervene to redress). donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-24528819396319075252016-12-23T15:09:15.213-08:002016-12-23T15:09:15.213-08:00@Duncan: Heh. Ok. Tax cheating harms people?
I fr...@Duncan: Heh. Ok. Tax cheating harms people?<br /><br />I freely admit there are times when I will be in the opposing minority. Some times that will involve taxation. I’m not so sure that majority rule is good enough for some taxes when there is a significant minority who sees it as a form of theft. Whether the majority agrees with us or not, our opposition is large enough that y’all should think carefully about why we object. <br /><br />Texting while driving is at a minimum an act of careless disregard for the life of others around us. Many of us can look into our hearts and see that behavior as a failure to understand one of the cardinal virtues. Love. From that we argue for the moral validity of a social rule that punishes the act.<br /><br />From that framework, which cardinal virtue is one failing to understand it one cheats on one’s tax obligation?Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-43692939808982559852016-12-23T15:08:52.192-08:002016-12-23T15:08:52.192-08:00Paul SB: ignoring the Ent's views for a secon...Paul SB: ignoring the Ent's views for a second, discussion about "the sexual freakshow" is a useful place to assess why progressives splinter.<br /><br />The debate about sexuality tends to devolve into a discussion of 'special accommodation' - it should always have been about 'bathroom equity.' Girls' bathrooms are almost always private stalls; men's bathrooms are almost always a mixture of private stalls and less private urinals. Insisting upon all private stalls, all the time, for both boys and girls, has been treated as a 'special accommodation.' Hence, many people oppose it. <br /><br />In a 'gender parity' discussion, the argument follows that "little boys shouldn't have to have other little boys (or adults) scrutinizing their peepees." The status quo is perverted, and the only reason the perversion has survived is that some men like setting things up to give them the most chance to see other men's penises. If the debate were presented that way, even Treebeard would think twice before arguing that the status quo is defensible.<br /><br />HOWEVER, this discussion never gets presented as 'protecting boys from perverts.' Accommodationist rhetoric dominates because the 'perfect' is the enemy of the 'good.' A winning rhetoric (my approach) could improve the lives of millions of kids now - BUT (a) it exploits preexisting judgments, esp. commonly held beliefs by homophobes without attacking those beliefs, and (b) it exploits and moves the lines of 'normalcy' - where they'd prefer to eliminate the concept entirely.donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-28916636726771492772016-12-23T14:54:23.430-08:002016-12-23T14:54:23.430-08:00Alfred Differ:
I love my wife and I love raw salm...Alfred Differ:<br /><i><br />I love my wife and I love raw salmon. Am I using ‘love’ the same way both times?<br /></i><br /><br />I read a short story once in which the protagonist is beginning to understand that his wife is an actual vampire who has been slowly sucking the life out of him. The story was supposed to exemplify the fact that women are vampires who suck the life out of men. Anyhoo, at one point, the wife protests that she loves him, and in a moment of clarity, he replies, "You love me the way I love a good steak dinner!"<br /><br />Certain right-wing jingoists would seem to "love America" in much the same way. Or at least it's the only way their protestations are consistent with reality.<br />LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-73683114219405615582016-12-23T14:36:47.342-08:002016-12-23T14:36:47.342-08:00Alfred/Paul SB: "The chances of them getting ...Alfred/Paul SB: <i>"The chances of them getting caught are near zero because we don’t enforce it on each other."</i><br />Rules against texting shift from a 'fantasy ban' to a painful reality IF a driver causes an accident while texting.<br /><br />The texting ban would be painfully hard to enforce if police needed to stop a driver, get permission to access their phone (or force them to unlock it), and verify that they'd been texting while driving just now. Multiple lines of coercion required to prove texting while driving has occurred would cross a line that many folks would regard as 'unreasonable' (and hence, violating the 4th Amendment).<br /><br />However, the second a driver causes an accident, texting becomes crucial to the record. Once someone has experienced the liability, they are likely to be deterred from repeat offenses.donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-80704944173115838422016-12-23T14:35:43.834-08:002016-12-23T14:35:43.834-08:00'nuff said. But see what he said about Michell...'nuff said. But see what he said about Michelle. And how he defended it.<br /><br />https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/12/23/trump-friend-and-n-y-campaign-co-chair-says-he-wants-obama-dead-of-mad-cow-disease-in-2017/?utm_term=.cae3682175a4David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-4315309747694136812016-12-23T14:20:59.577-08:002016-12-23T14:20:59.577-08:00Another little gem from the Twig,
"... nor d...Another little gem from the Twig,<br /><br />"... nor do they want cultural pathologies like the sexual freakshow agenda imposed upon them ..."<br /><br />Middle school must not have been that long ago for him, right? This kind of obsession with other people's private business only shows a level of childish insecurity that should be embarrassing in an adult. Sexuality is a normal biological drive, and like all things biological, it has a bell curve. Heterosexuality, bisexuality and homosexuality are all spots along that normal continuum, and there really isn't any reason he, or anyone else, should care what consenting adults do in the privacy of their homes to express those instincts. Regarding more freakish behaviors, these are likely consequences of many centuries of traditions that suppress normal behavior, resulting in psychological obsessions and weird behaviors. People who, like our Twig, obsess over other people's business like this, are the problem. Most of those freaks wouldn't exist if those conservative "values" didn't demonize those behaviors that really are normal and healthy, creating unhealthy obsessions. Paul SBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-63376267793335044032016-12-23T14:10:48.167-08:002016-12-23T14:10:48.167-08:00Dr. Brin,
To your list of problems with warm clim...Dr. Brin,<br /><br />To your list of problems with warm climate migrating northward, add solifluction. The Alaska Pipeline has had huge problems in the last decade or so with the permafrost it is anchored into turning into mud, causing the pylons to fall over. On top of that, work trucks sent in to repair the pipeline have had to contend with trying to drive on this very high-viscosity mud. In time, though, much of that mud, as viscous as it is, will wash away into rivers and the ocean, disposing of what soil there was, and removing a lot of man-made installations in the process. <br /><br />Alfred,<br />It sounds like you are arguing for vigilantism. As I said, the point was to encourage greater enforcement in the first place. How well it worked is hard to say, since hate crime wasn't even a word, much less a statistic, a few dozen years ago. But by raising awareness, it has the potential to move the culture, whereas ignoring the problem has no potential. Same goes for texting and driving. The more people talk about it, the more you hear people saying that texting while driving is really freaking stupid, instead of saying that it's just a matter of freedom of choice. I didn't say it was a perfect solution, but if it moves the needle in the right direction, it's better than doing nothing. Paul SBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-58496950353089837142016-12-23T13:49:30.913-08:002016-12-23T13:49:30.913-08:00Hi Alfred
Re - rules and regulations and people no...Hi Alfred<br />Re - rules and regulations and people not obeying them<br /><br />Re-think your example - substitute tax cheating for texting while drivingduncan cairncrosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14153725128216947145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-59868622554986763222016-12-23T13:41:38.787-08:002016-12-23T13:41:38.787-08:00Heh. Code. Obviously I type that more often than C...Heh. Code. Obviously I type that more often than Cod. Sorry about that. 8)Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-60981529604290764792016-12-23T13:40:42.201-08:002016-12-23T13:40:42.201-08:00@Catfish N. Code: There is another option availabl...@Catfish N. Code: There is another option available to the defense of the Baltics besides Germany and part of NATO. Germany is likely to be torn about military action, but Poland won’t be. A small side alliance involving Poland, Hungary, Romania, and maybe someone near the Caspian could be expressed through NATO or independently depending on which way Germany flops. Such an alliance would create pressure on Russia that would mitigate some German political outcomes. Look in the news and you’ll find some of these countries already talking to each other and making arrangements.<br /><br />I agree with you that Muscovy won’t vanish. If the Russian Federation falls apart to that kind of granularity, there won’t be much need to push it further. I suspect this will happen in the first half of this century and we will be focused upon what happens to all the nukes. There might be a shooting war involving the Baltics, but it will be the Poles and Romanians who determine whether the US acts or waits patiently.<br /><br />As for cyberwar, encourage your friend to practice safe networking as much as safe sex. Best practices are impressively similar for both. 8)<br />Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-56851647658632620002016-12-23T13:20:06.357-08:002016-12-23T13:20:06.357-08:00@Randall: Arguing that no one is going to invade a...@Randall: Arguing that no one is going to invade across the Arctic misses the point. Think like a Russian instead of as a member of the West. Russians know deep in their hearts that they get invaded from every open direction. The Mongols pwned them for quite a while. The Poles invaded and stole everything of any value leaving Muscovy’s early Romanovs granting noble titles to civil servants to prevent national collapse. Where did the White Russians come from, hmm? <br /><br />If the Arctic opens and commercial ports get built, Russians WILL perceive a threat in the future. Germany was an economic disaster after WWI, but 20 years later they willingly entered a two front war to dominate Northern Europe from France to the Urals and made a convincing run at it. It doesn’t matter what we think Canadians will do. It doesn’t matter what we think Japanese, Chinese, USians, and everyone else will do. What matters is what Russians think we will do. When you wrap your brain around that, you’ll see the motivating force behind Russia’s historical cycle. Some among them might like the fossil fuel windfall to be reaped by drilling up there, but many more will make defense budget demands they won’t be able to sustain.<br />Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-51734650025039763012016-12-23T12:58:18.870-08:002016-12-23T12:58:18.870-08:00@Paul SB: That's why we need this kind of legi...@Paul SB: <i>That's why we need this kind of legislative deterrent.</i><br /><br />Yah, but it isn’t a deterrent. It is a fantasy deterrent. Look around you at California drivers. The chances of them getting caught are near zero because we don’t enforce it on each other. For honest-to-goodness emergent law we DO enforce without any police being needed. Only some of us are willing to be enough of a zealot to deal with the threat people pose to each other when driving while distracted.<br /><br />New statutes and regulations that signal our demand that older ones actually be enforced strike me as a good example of insanity. Do the same thing again and expect a different result. Until the behavior described by a statute becomes part of the body of emergent law, enforcing rules against it is an act of coercion by a (possible) majority against a moderately large minority with many in the middle who might not care either way. It doesn’t take large numbers in the opposing minority to block enforcement and make a mockery of the Rule of Law. Prohibition in the US is the textbook case, but we have other large examples like back alley abortions, interracial and cousin marriage, polygamy and polyamory, and all sorts of things that make many of us say ‘Ick’, but not so many that the opposing minority is a thin social residue.<br /><br /><i>As far as laws vs. regulations go, that sounds more like the difference between defining a terms and creating an operational definition, rather than one being necessary and the other superfluous or worse.</i><br /><br />Heh. Philosophers are known to define terms in a different way from common usage. Hayek did this in his three volume set from the 70’s, but he admitted to it early and often. He was trying to point out how Americans can be confused about law by the fact that we re-use the word for legislation and emergent social rules. We do this with many other words too. I love my wife and I love raw salmon. Am I using ‘love’ the same way both times? Nah. There is a connection that might draw a smile from an adult and confusion from a child (and then an ick), but the word is overloaded at least a dozen different ways. The same is true of ‘law’ and Hayek tried to tease out the parts.<br /><br />I don’t need a statute to tell me that what pedophiles do is wrong. The statute is useful, though, in preventing me from clubbing the offender to death because enforcement of it by the state means I can step away from the problem knowing it will get handled. When I see someone driving distracted with cell phone in hand, I AM tempted to thrash them even with laws on the books because I know of the minimal chance of enforcement and the large opposing minority. I would enforce an emergent rule, though, and not a piece of legislation. THIS is what I think some Libertarians fail to see. Their acceptance of the emergent rules is weaker than those around them and they think a lack of government will leave them facing less coercion. It won’t. Many people will not wait for social reputation systems to act before clubbing them over some bit of carelessness. If they can be taught to see this, they might be a political force someday. Until then, they won’t.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-10822786706530719132016-12-23T12:52:14.214-08:002016-12-23T12:52:14.214-08:00BTW... "untermenschen" is as untermensch...BTW... "untermenschen" is as untermenschen does. The coastal/blue/university folks welcome your sons and daughters who have only to try. In contrast, the lords who you crawl before and idolize with lickspittle devotion... they have - for 6000 years - proved they'll keep your children in their "place."<br /><br />This culture war was not invented by America. We have better things to do than focus on keeping you confeds down. We consented to gigantic net tax flows from us to you. We are the ones who built the TVA dams for you, who built your interstate and all the clean schools and clinics, while Appalachian ingrates forget what their realm looked like, just 40 years ago, in the hillbilly era, screaming at us over high speed Internet links we paid for.<br /><br />Culture War is directly paid for and subsidized by the New Lords who know that one elite stands in the way of their feudal power... the meritocracy. Based not on blood but accomplishment. They train their doggies to hate exactly the "elites" who stand in the way of the Plantation Lords.<br /><br />So, doggie? You yelp and sic 'em, for master. Gooood doggie!David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-69861394458460957022016-12-23T12:32:02.921-08:002016-12-23T12:32:02.921-08:00Treebeard is an American xenophobe, but this line ...Treebeard is an American xenophobe, but this line from him IS worth considering.<br /><br /><i>To put it another way, what you call “the Confederacy” is just your own shadow staring back at you.</i><br /><br />There is a possible truth in this, but not in the guilt-trip sense. If we leave them behind as we try to rise above humanity's general level of xenophobia, isn't that what it would look like to them?<br /><br />The solution is to poach ALL their children. 8)Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-1496738960492981162016-12-23T11:18:05.851-08:002016-12-23T11:18:05.851-08:00Various others:
Catfish n’ Cod… who the heck ARE ...Various others:<br /><br />Catfish n’ Cod… who the heck ARE you and what kind of vitamins have you been taking? Time for you to start your own blog, sir.<br /><br />RobH if DT tries any of that he will run into the professionals, embedded deeply through every service. If he tries your (I admit clever) “I’ll pardon my own thugs” gambit he will be impeached. The one, speculative) was he might have secured that failure mode is if he has blackmail material on Pence.<br /><br />DT’s longer-term strategy will be to force scads of professional officers into retirement. A less bloody version of Erdogan’s approach in Turkey.<br /><br />… which backfires when/if the dems recruit 220 of these retired colonels to run in every GOP owned Congressional district.<br />—<br /><br />Oh, even if the Arctic thaws, you still have (1) almost no topsoil, (2) methane boiling out of permafrost, and (3) just one growing season, while you have destroyed tropics where there used to be two.<br />David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-13095860585515377002016-12-23T11:15:23.464-08:002016-12-23T11:15:23.464-08:00In fact, I have some reservations about immigrati...In fact, I have some reservations about immigration. I agree with the democrats that borders should be tightened and illegal immigration reduced. That was no typo. It is always democratic presidents who beef up the Border Patrol and GOPper prexies who weaken it. (Stupid journalists never notice.) And Obama deported more than anyone.<br /><br />The dems changed America by increasing LEGAL immigration. And I don’t mind the amount, I mind the type. Emphasizing family reunions beyond parent-child is - I believe - deeply immoral. Anyone in the old country who has an American cousin is already luckier than his neighbors! How does he deserve even more luck than the girl next door, who studied harder and tried harder?<br /><br />We should go back to favoring the best and brightest and most accomplished. Whose wealth generation here will then make us rich enough to afford to keep doing great things. <br /><br />Only note that the ent went “squirrel!” evading the plain and simple fact that all the world’s people deem Europe and North America to be realms of hope and opportunity and want to *leave* the realms that he admires. Russian youths are fleeing en masse. The first thing a Chinese man does, when he becomes rich, is to buy an escape condo in New York or Vancouver. Your ravings would only make sense if ALL the world’s people were more stupid than… Treebeard?David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-7619431888226508052016-12-23T11:10:28.581-08:002016-12-23T11:10:28.581-08:00“If you ask me, it's a rather vile and parasit...“If you ask me, it's a rather vile and parasitic mentality that only views populations in terms of the few productive, progressive elites it can poach for the coastal enclaves..”<br /><br />Yes, I do keep asking you, because you serve a useful purpose, showing the stunning sophistry and faux intellect of the troglodyte reflex. Do not think for a moment that, despite your evident stupidity, I would underestimate you and your ilk, who have dominated almost every human society and toppled every renaissance.<br /><br />You are the product of 6000 years of strongmen grabbing all the local maidens and tossing them into their harem piles and slaying any fathers or brothers who protested. 6000 years or more, of genetic culling led to a kind of male who - when he can - will grab harems. And when he can’t, will get on his knees and suck up to the harem grabbers.<br /><br />You exhibit both traits - in mewling (hilarious) fantasies that YOU might be a lord, in such a world. Meanwhile, in this world, howling adulation of anyone who looks vaguely like a strongman. Hoping for bones tossed from his table.<br /><br /> It is predictable, all the way down the line. And while it is un-sapient, and must be fought by the sapient, it is not your fault.<br /><br />What IS your fault is the stunning human sin of ingratitude… your mewling is done in a context of coddled-pampered, air-conditioned, full-refrigerator, couch-potato, video-game addict comfort, pausing to go online and snapping at the hands that feed you. Whelp.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-80552070253909176092016-12-23T10:23:27.555-08:002016-12-23T10:23:27.555-08:00The future is FUSION ENERGY. We need to get back t...The future is FUSION ENERGY. We need to get back to the Moon for Helium-3<br /><br />Fusion Breakthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKifAWeISfMAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com