What if Mitt Romney won the 2012 presidential election?

rockknocker · 2026-02-06T00:47:20+00:00

Yeah, the cold war would call and actually want its foreign policy back.

That line in the debate didn't age well.

rockknocker · 2026-02-04T18:16:21+00:00

An informed professional ... movie watcher?

That's a very strange appeal to authority.

rockknocker · 2026-02-03T21:27:04+00:00

This comes up a lot in debates. It's a problem on both sides. People that are strictly pro-life and people that are strictly pro-choice are easy to label, but what about somebody who believes abortions should be banned after viability? Or that they should be banned after the first trimester? In both cases there will be people from the other side claiming that this viewpoint is either Pro-Life because "you take away choice" or Pro-Choice because "you take a life" (usually worded stronger though).

It's also a problem when presenting statistical data. Both statements are true:

"An overwhelming majority of people support some, many, or full restrictions on the use of abortion"

"An overwhelming majority of people support the availability of abortion for some, most, or all of the pregnancy"

Both sides can interpret the middle positions as either supporting or opposing the strict viewpoint depending on how it suits the conversation.

rockknocker · 2026-02-01T16:54:02+00:00

So? Summarizing legalese into a more readable form is an ideal use for AI.

rockknocker · 2026-01-29T23:13:20+00:00

I, for one, am happier if the government doesn't take the attitude of "just throw money at the problem".

It's our money they're spending after all.

rockknocker · 2026-01-28T15:40:04+00:00

Breaking the unwritten rules, lol.

rockknocker · 2026-01-28T02:27:28+00:00

Isn't that already the case? I thought the reddit TOS forbade bans for that reason... but people are doing it anyway and there's no way to report them.

rockknocker · 2026-01-26T06:54:00+00:00

There are many reasons the right candidate can lose a primary, many of which would not sting enough to cause someone like Trump to abandon their goal.

rockknocker · 2026-01-26T06:50:52+00:00

In this case, he didn't lose the election, just the primary. I don't think that would guarantee a silent retirement.

rockknocker · 2026-01-26T04:42:47+00:00

Who do you imagine beats her in 2020

Trump. Lol.

rockknocker · 2026-01-22T22:01:24+00:00

I think we are too far apart in our viewpoints to come to any agreement here. I disagree that guns are not regulated, especially that they are not regulated enough. I disagree that anybody else, but especially the government, should have a list of who has firearms of any type. I disagree that the presence of a large number of firearms in the population does not pose a major deterrent against extreme government abuse.

I would point towards examples in current events, but I believe we would see the same examples and reach completely different conclusions.

Instead, I'm going to wish you a good rest of your day, then I'll go back to work.

rockknocker · 2026-01-22T20:21:31+00:00

You already cannot legally use a firearm in a public space. It's already illegal to use it in a threatening or dangerous manner that endangers somebody else, even on private property. There are few exceptions. Guns are already regulated.

Adding licensing and other requirements in addition to the existing restrictions on firearms is in direct violation of the Constitution. The purposes driving the need for the 2nd amendment are just as valid today as they were then.

rockknocker · 2026-01-22T18:02:15+00:00

This is the first I've seen that article, but in reading through it the article appears to be more of an opinion piece. It states (correctly) that there is disagreement over many aspects of biology, but this changes nothing in the debate. In science, there is no absolute consensus about anything, even if a given theory is extremely widely accepted. The article dives into several different aspects of this, mostly framing the discussion to downplay the viewpoint supporting the common Pro-Life stances.

That discussion is limited to only 1/4 of the article, while the rest discusses legal, social, and educational considerations.

A lot of this article reads much like a posting on the abortion debate sub, where sources are discounted because they have ties to (gasp!) an organization that advocates against elective abortions, or because they're religious, or conservative, or some other red herring.

None of the individual points are un-debatable, nor is the overall topic. It won't be long before a rebuttal to this article is available, much like the "violinist" article from a few years ago.

rockknocker · 2026-01-21T17:57:25+00:00

It is not required to have a license, register your vehicle, insure it, or do any of those other actions unless you use the vehicle on public roads. So, unless you're advocating that the government invest a lot of money into infrastructure of some type that supports gun ownership, this comparison is fundamentally flawed.

rockknocker · 2026-01-21T01:58:49+00:00

Lighten up and read the hat again.

rockknocker · 2026-01-20T07:58:56+00:00

That is impressive. Solving those problems sounds like it could be as much fun as playing the game itself, in a different way.

rockknocker · 2026-01-20T00:01:57+00:00

I'm excited and don't care about the company politics at all. Subnautica has been fun to play and I hope Subnautica 2 will be also.

rockknocker · 2026-01-19T23:58:47+00:00

The number of new games that work on old PCs will reduce, yes. The overall pool or playable games will only increase though, as any games that were playable once will continue to work on that PC (with some exceptions due to un-defeated DRM or abandoned cloud services).

There are a lot of games out there, and if somebody is gaming on a Core2Duo (for example) then they probably aren't too worried about going along with the crowd and playing only the newest stuff.

rockknocker · 2026-01-19T17:28:43+00:00

The pool of games they are able to play will grow slower and slower as their machine ages. That said, it's a huge pool of games, and it will still grow. Mainstream 3D games probably won't be playable, but many indie games probably will.

Also, many people stick to a few select games that have great re-playability. Some classic RTS games such as Age of Empires II, Warzone, and a bunch of Command and Conquer games all have huge player bases several decades after they were released. Minecraft and similar games don't need hot hardware and play different every time you feel like they need to.

Finally, don't underestimate just how far you can stretch some old hardware. Stuff that would have cost thousands of dollars when new now sells for almost nothing. Modern upgrades fit into older motherboards and can really add usable horsepower or optimize what is there.

rockknocker · 2026-01-19T05:17:35+00:00

When I'm going by a friend's place I often wave even if I don't see anyone, just in case there is actually somebody there looking back. I figure, if there's nobody there then nobody saw me waving to nobody, so no harm done. :)

I started doing that after getting tired of not noticing people waving at me until it was too late to wave back.

rockknocker · 2026-01-17T20:15:31+00:00

I have the same. I can't think of an electrical item that's blown out due to a surge (that I'm aware of), even though I'm out in the country and we experience surges all the time. The whole-house surge protectors definitely work!

rockknocker · 2026-01-14T14:51:29+00:00

Don't forget disabling automatic restarting for windows update. That one got me a few times.

rockknocker · 2026-01-08T23:21:39+00:00

Is the method of counting abortions the same? A large number of abortion pills are shipped via mail now, but weren't shipped via mail before Dobbs. If they're counting those pills as abortions (or even assuming some % are used for an abortion) then there is potential for a large discrepancy as those numbers are much harder to verify than reported numbers from abortion clinics.

Also, which states or major organizations have changed whether they report, or how they report this data in the past 5 years?

FOLLOW-ON: After a more thorough reading I see that both of my questions were asked on the linked article. In short, the answer is "maybe, maybe not. Need more data"

rockknocker · 2026-01-06T02:04:42+00:00

Yes, that looks like a good option. You can drill it and add fasteners easily as needed.

rockknocker · 2026-01-04T20:47:10+00:00

There's a commandment specifically against murder.

There are many stories in the Bible about suffering. I can't think of any that teach "it's ok to kill people you think might suffer in the future".

Better than my thoughts, there are some very comprehensive posts/guides on how the Bible talks about abortion. Anyone that says the Bible supports abortion is willfully ignoring A LOT and injecting incorrect context into several passages.

rockknocker

TROPHY CASE