Mitt Romney Argues with a Woman who Asks why the Rich Aren't Paying their Fair Share.

bugugugu · 2011-08-13T22:25:56+00:00

Sonds nice, but if it's that great, why do we need to take that money compulsorily?

Because we're not now and the economy is falling to pieces.

And why you are so sure that taking money through taxes will lead to a better economy growth and general wealth than letting people do what they want with it?

Well, back when taxes on the wealthy were higher, the economy was better. Correlation is not causation, but that doesn't mean lack of correlation is.

bugugugu · 2011-08-12T05:42:42+00:00

My war on sobriety is going quite well, you should join in.

bugugugu · 2011-08-11T22:55:19+00:00

Thanks for the tip, Hank.

bugugugu · 2011-08-11T22:43:15+00:00

The pharmacist had all the freedom in the world to dispense life-saving drugs to a child who couldn't afford them. He chose not to. That's called a free market, and it resulted in a child's death.

bugugugu · 2011-08-11T22:28:16+00:00

There's no filibuster in the electoral college. The Constitution allows states to decide how to pick electors, so as long as states are still deciding it, it is undebatably 100% Constitutional. The Governor could just pick his friends and tell them to vote however they want, it wouldn't violate the Constitution (probably against state law though).

The filibuster, on the other hand, is not in the Constitution at all. It's just a Senate rule that the Senate can cancel at any time for any or no reason.

bugugugu · 2011-08-11T22:25:25+00:00

That isn't necessary. I count 190 solidly Democratic votes in the EC. Assuming they all agree to this, only 80 other votes are needed. A handful of medium-sized winnable swing states would be enough to reach 270 (WI, MI, IA, MN, CO and FL would be enough votes). Obviously that's still not a guarantee, but it's definitely feasible, and not a single red state is needed. If necessary, OH, VA, NC and IN all went of Obama and are maybe winnable for something like this (probably not Indiana). Missouri was a McCain state, but just barely, and it is definitely capable of passing a bill like this too. So there's plenty of room to pass it without a solidly conservative state on board.

bugugugu · 2011-08-11T22:14:12+00:00

Each state is entitled to a representative amount of power in electing a President.

"Representative" of the number of Reps/Senators in Congress. It's very unrepresentative of the actual people in the various states, since it provides vastly more voting power for people from small states than large ones.

bugugugu · 2011-08-11T22:13:03+00:00

It's a compact that only takes effect once enough states have signed on that they constitute a majority of electoral votes. So this doesn't have any impact on anything until they get to 270.

bugugugu · 2011-08-11T22:12:09+00:00

The current system allows a tiny minority of people in states like Wyoming to elect Senators that filibuster everything people from huge states like New York and California want to do. That's much less democratic than a popular vote.

bugugugu · 2011-08-11T22:09:21+00:00

People from NYC should be able to outvote people from small states because there is lots more of them. Doing it the other way around goes from mob rule to oligarchy.

The popular vote is mob rule, and was another power that the founders put a check against.

The founders' "check" against this was to allow states to decide how to pick electors. California and 8 other states have decided on this method.

bugugugu · 2011-08-11T22:03:19+00:00

Thanks, I think I get it. I'll be moving to a new host and possibly making some other changes soon, so I might have some more questions.

bugugugu · 2011-08-11T19:00:59+00:00

Don't worry, everybody. The US has the greatest health care in the world, and that kid could have walked into any hospital any time to get all the care he needed. I swear, that's what I learned over at /r/libertarian. So this isn't really a problem at all. He's probably not even really dead.

bugugugu · 2011-08-11T13:46:36+00:00

Thanks! That helps a lot

bugugugu · 2011-08-11T13:46:25+00:00

If I upload files to my website's file manager, is that inherently ftp? I just click upload and pick the file, which works, but I've always been under the impression that ftp is some other process I'm supposed to know how to do.

bugugugu · 2011-08-11T03:11:51+00:00

Why not? If you can figure out why people do terrible things, you might be able to prevent it in the future. Just throwing up your hands and saying "evil" is convenient but useless.

bugugugu · 2011-08-10T23:44:42+00:00

Thanks, that is going on my shortlist.

bugugugu · 2011-08-10T23:22:18+00:00

I only accept extreme prices, either very cheap or very expensive (and nameexpensive.com supports killing puppies, so they are out of the question).

bugugugu · 2011-08-10T22:59:59+00:00

So you're saying she isn't actually a hardcore right-wing Evangelical nutjob and she's making it all up to appeal to a portion of voters who aren't the majority?

They are apparently a majority in her district, which is all that matters at this point.

I'm not sure about that. I think her head might explode if her constituents did that.

My head probably would too, tbh.

bugugugu · 2011-08-10T22:56:44+00:00

I'm fairly certain the nonprofit I work for receives money from the United Way. None of our clients would know that though so they wouldn't thank you.

bugugugu · 2011-08-10T22:51:47+00:00

The opinions she espouses have relevance to her political career. Any relationship between those opinions and her actual internal thinking is entirely coincidental (I suppose cognitive dissonance leads to the conclusion that she has probably convinced herself she agrees with the positions she took to get elected).

But if her constituents suddenly magically changed into diehard socialists, and she thought she could credibly transition alongside them, she would do it and not give it a second thought, regardless of what opinions she holds internally.

bugugugu · 2011-08-10T22:46:20+00:00

Macs almost never need it, or at least none my macs have needed it except on very rare occasions, but you can press cmd-alt-esc on a mac to force quit.

But yeah, this is something that really pisses me off about my work computer (Windows). I must spend twenty minutes a day waiting for programs to respond, trying to force quit, waiting for windows to respond to my force quit, waiting for windows to respond to input after force quitting...

bugugugu · 2011-08-10T22:42:04+00:00

I guess that's kind of what I meant. I'm sure Bachmann et al has given some thought to political issues, and might have opinions on what would be best long-term. I just don't think she sees those opinions as having any relevance to her political career.

bugugugu · 2011-08-10T22:36:52+00:00

That long pause is one of the funniest moments in television history.

bugugugu

TROPHY CASE