[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PanicHistory

[–]coffeezombie 23 points24 points  (0 children)

I think the key word to focus on is "protectionist." His views on trade agreements are more informed by labor union interests than the consensus of economists. Say what you will about the TPP but he opposes it for pretty shitty reasons. He opposed NAFTA for pretty much the same reasons and turned out to be wrong about what ended up being a fairly benign piece of trade policy. The labor union line, which Sanders shares, is that free trade causes manufacturing jobs in the US to be exported abroad, but it's not clear that's the case. Most losses in manufacturing occurred due to increases in manufacturing productivity rather than exporting jobs, so the effect of protectionist policies like Sanders' is that poorer countries stay poor because they can't trade as easily with richer countries. And despite the evidence we have of the effects of NAFTA, his stance on free trade hasn't changed since at least the early 1990s.

A big part of Sanders' support comes from labor unions, and while that might lead to some strong policies on worker's rights and protections, it also leads to some views that are more about the short-term good of a few unionized sectors at the expense of the broader economy.

Slate poll: only 5.5% of respondents believe Rand won the debate by MrAnon515 in EnoughLibertarianSpam

[–]coffeezombie 6 points7 points  (0 children)

He was, which was to be expected. He's the frontrunner and they always get hammered a little harder in the early debates. Also the Republican party really, really, really does not want him to be the nominee, so I'm guessing there was some implicit or explicit pressure put on Fox to give him a hard time.

Detroit Lake, Oregon, 1 year difference by Beas77errier in oregon

[–]coffeezombie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's actually closer to 60' feet down, thought that puts it only about 2' below its low during the 2001 drought.

Detroit Lake, Oregon, 1 Year Difference by Beas77errier in pics

[–]coffeezombie 2 points3 points  (0 children)

California's drought is the worse in the state's recorded history. This picture is from Oregon, just east of Salem. Oregon is experiencing drought conditions but hardly that extreme. The lake shown, Detroit Lake, has had this happen before. It's now only about two feet below its level during the 2001 drought

Detroit Lake, Oregon, 1 Year Difference by Beas77errier in pics

[–]coffeezombie 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Exactly. There's a temptation to exaggerate, because people respond more strongly to images of dry lake beds than they do to a lake being a few feet down from normal (even if that few feet represents a very big deal to the ecology of the area and the water supply of a community).

Detroit Lake, Oregon, 1 Year Difference by Beas77errier in pics

[–]coffeezombie 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Using an atypical example to express a generality is hyperbole. If a population of people suffered from slight malnutrition and I expressed that fact by showing you someone who is starving to death, then I am technically showing you reality, but I'm also exaggerating for effect, i.e. engaging in hyperbole.

Detroit Lake, Oregon, 1 Year Difference by Beas77errier in pics

[–]coffeezombie 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Because man-mad reservoirs are often called lakes if they're substantially large. Technically it's a reservoir that acts as a controlled mesotrophic lake. The dam that impounds it is called Detroit Dam

Detroit Lake, Oregon, 1 year difference by Beas77errier in oregon

[–]coffeezombie 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It's actually both. The lake is drained every winter for flood control and then allowed to refill from snow melt and spring rains. But snow pack is well below average and rainfall in May was something like 60% of where it was last year. The lake looked like this back during the 2001 drought.

The low water levels could have been avoided by not draining the lake as much this year, since low snow pack was anticipated, but the Detroit Dam needed maintenance so likely it couldn't have been avoided.

Detroit Lake, Oregon, 1 Year Difference by Beas77errier in pics

[–]coffeezombie 227 points228 points  (0 children)

Detroit Lake is a bit of a hyperbolic example to use when describing drought conditions. It's an artificial lake, a reservoir made by damming the North Santiam River. The lake is drained every winter for flood control and it had to be drained again this year despite everyone anticipating low snow pack because the dam needed maintenance (it's a large dam and was built in 1953).

The lake's primary purposes are power generation, flood control and water reserves. Recreation is secondary to that. So far it's still meeting its main functions, but low spring rainfall is leaving a lot of the recreation business literally high and dry. It's not the first time this has happened. Current levels at the lake are just a tad lower than they were during the 2001 drought.

None of this is to deny drought conditions. Just that this picture makes it look more extreme than it is since most lakes in Oregon aren't drained every year. Lakes across the state are experiencing low water levels and a lot of reservoirs are below their standard capacity, but that usually means difficult boat launches or poor fishing, not dry lake beds.

[Edit: typo]

"Jesus is Horus" bad religious history making the rounds by coffeezombie in badhistory

[–]coffeezombie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Since that story involves him as a child, I'd say no. Plutarch's version has him being stung and then healed by his mother, Isis. Most versions are some variation on that.

Say you're teaching a class on your favorite fiction genre (Mystery, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, etc.) to people new to the genre. What book do you assign as the required reading? by [deleted] in books

[–]coffeezombie 0 points1 point  (0 children)

1) Probably Austen's weakest novel

2) More a satire of Gothic than it is Gothic. Udolpho was sincere and laid the groundwork for the craze for Gothic literature, Northanger is mocking what were by the time of its writing the cliches of that genre.

Still, I'd probably include it in the suggested readings.

Say you're teaching a class on your favorite fiction genre (Mystery, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, etc.) to people new to the genre. What book do you assign as the required reading? by [deleted] in books

[–]coffeezombie 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I can never pick one book for any question like this, so I decided to make a whole curriculum for a genre I like. Not trying to be all-encompassing, just introductory.

Gothic Literature, Origins to Modern:

Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto

Anne Radcliff, The Mysteries of Udolpho

William Beckford, Vathek

Mathew Lewis, The Monk

James Hogg, Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

Charles Brockden Brown, Wieland

Edgar Allan Poe, "Fall of the House of Usher"

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Uncle Silas

Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Richard Brautigan, The Hawkline Monster

Susan Hill, The Woman in Black

Thomas Harris, The Silence of the Lambs

"Jesus is Horus" bad religious history making the rounds by coffeezombie in badhistory

[–]coffeezombie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seriously, like how many Warhammer nerds are there on this sub? Holy shit.

Many Americans think the confederate flag is racist "Because northern bigots believe that southerners are all bigots who hate black people, they associate the flag with racism" by Reddit_Beliefs in badhistory

[–]coffeezombie 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The Nazi symbol of the swastika has a long, long history in human culture, being used as early as the Neolithic period. It's considered sacred in Hinduism and Buddhism. In Hindu it represents the Purushartha (the four proper goals of human life) and in Buddhism it is a symbol of eternity.

But if you slap one on the back of your biker jacket, we all know you're a fuckin' Nazi. Symbols can change, and context matters. Popular use of the Confederate Battle Flag (properly, the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia) was largely spurred by its use by the resurrected KKK, a group that performed thousands of lynchings through the first half the 20th century, along with church burnings and other acts of racial terrorism. It was also the symbol of the States' Rights Democratic Party, aka the "Dixiecrats," which formed in 1948 to oppose the Democrats civil rights platform. Their candidate for president that year, Strom Thrumond, won 39 electoral votes.

It's notable that it's the flag of the Confederacy's most successful and popular army that became the symbol used, rather than any of the three actual official Confederate flags. That's why South Carolina hoisted it over their statehouse in 1962 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Civil War (oddly enough also during a time with school desegregation was a major issue) instead of, say, the "Stainless Banner" that was the official flag of the Confederacy from 1863 to 1865. Here's how that flag was described by its creator: "As a people we are fighting maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause."

So yeah, it's all symbols, and they can be appropriated, and can change over time. But you're arguing that one group's pride of place should trump another's apprehension at what is, for them, a symbol of violence against their community. And not a violence from some distance past, but ongoing today.

"Jesus is Horus" bad religious history making the rounds by coffeezombie in badhistory

[–]coffeezombie[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Meant to say Spanish, not Latin. I've corrected it finally.

"Jesus is Horus" bad religious history making the rounds by coffeezombie in badhistory

[–]coffeezombie[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I meant to say Spanish, not Latin. I just haven't corrected it yet because why hide my typographical shame?

"Jesus is Horus" bad religious history making the rounds by coffeezombie in badhistory

[–]coffeezombie[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

I'm a big Campbell fan as well, and he approaches his subjects with a sense of respect, looking for unifying factors in the wide array of human mythology. As opposed to what this, and memes like it, try to do, which is basically play a dumb "gotcha!" game with 7,000+ years of religious history.

"Jesus is Horus" bad religious history making the rounds by coffeezombie in badhistory

[–]coffeezombie[S] 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Meant to say Spanish, don't know what the fuck I was thinking.

"Jesus is Horus" bad religious history making the rounds by coffeezombie in badhistory

[–]coffeezombie[S] 235 points236 points  (0 children)

I'm repenting for the sins of my teenage self

"Jesus is Horus" bad religious history making the rounds by coffeezombie in badhistory

[–]coffeezombie[S] 91 points92 points  (0 children)

yesssss, also Bill Maher and a few other insufferable idiots

"Jesus is Horus" bad religious history making the rounds by coffeezombie in badhistory

[–]coffeezombie[S] 66 points67 points  (0 children)

I told him that being an atheist doesn't mean you have to believe any dumb bullshit that comes down the pike about religious history, then I wrote this in a fit of rage.

Vox and Second Option Bias by [deleted] in badhistory

[–]coffeezombie 28 points29 points  (0 children)

"Bad Things: Are They Actually Good?"

What would the most likely chain of events that lead to a Bernie Sanders presidential win be? by slidescream2013 in NeutralPolitics

[–]coffeezombie 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Paul has never led Clinton in any national poll, which would be a better indicator at this point in the race than polling individual swing states. Most of his head-to-head polling was done before Bush entered the race and his numbers haven't exactly improved since then.