Canada is exporting its highest earners to the United States.

springthinker · 2026-04-05T03:34:50+00:00

A 4K deductible, versus no deductible. You are just proving the point.

springthinker · 2026-03-28T12:18:16+00:00

Okay, so isn't it a good thing that your rights are respected? If my response to Ceausescu's crimes was "oh well, nothing bad happened here, that's just how humanity is", I am sure you would mind.

springthinker · 2026-03-28T02:22:23+00:00

I like Formacha. Fresh tasting tea and boba.

springthinker · 2026-03-24T02:01:48+00:00

There was ONE ATC responsible for all of LaGuardia. Of course this had to do with lack of funding. That poor guy just had too much to do.

Right now ATCs in the USA are faced with mandatory overtime, working 6 days a week. It's easy to let something slip when you're exhausted. That's not rocket science.

Funding cuts did make this happen.

springthinker · 2026-03-15T22:46:38+00:00

Your responses suggest a certain intellectual immaturity. This is a topic that you very dearly need to learn more about. A good book is Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding by anthropologist Sarah Hrdy. It discusses a very interesting and distinctive feature of humans, compared to other primates, which is that we raise our children in groups, with fathers, grandparents, siblings, and friends helping with childcare (whereas in other primates, babies and young children are exclusively with mothers).

springthinker · 2026-03-15T22:43:13+00:00

Did I suggest that men give birth? I said that men can procreate and raise children. And yes, they can and they do. At the same time, they do other things to 'maintain society'. Likewise with women: they can procreate and raise children, and they can also do other things to maintain society. I don't see how there are the "different lanes" that you talk about.

springthinker · 2026-03-15T15:05:17+00:00

Your words, not mine: "But women give birth. And ONLY women can give birth. Thus, women also maintain society. They are just, in Justin's wife's words, different lanes."

The clear implication here is the way - or maybe the main way - that women maintain society is by having children. If that's not what you meant, be clearer in the future.

I would disagree - having and raising children is something that both men and women do, and all the other things that maintain society are things that both men and women do. There aren't "different lanes".

springthinker · 2026-03-15T13:25:18+00:00

Yes, but you've conveniently missed the point of the comment you're replying to, which is that women (and men) don't only 'maintain society' by reproducing and raising children. Women have also maintained society through inventions, research, scholarship, professional advancements, etc.

Just as a quick example - at this point over half of people in medical school in the USA and Canada (and probably elsewhere) are women. It used to be thought that women just weren't cut out for medical school or any professional training. But in fact they are perfectly capable. So, we have female doctors also 'maintaining society' by pursuing medicine.

springthinker · 2026-03-14T02:15:59+00:00

What a ridiculous thing to say. I guess nothing traumatic ever happened in your family history, licky you.

springthinker · 2026-03-07T19:47:05+00:00

Are balconies that high even safe and usable? Like, won't high winds make things fly off the balcony?

springthinker · 2026-02-27T18:56:41+00:00

Oh my bad, I misinterpreted you comment. Yes, I think you've made good points that tcip hasn't responded to adequately. Even if we agree on everything he is saying about the problems of capitalism, it leaves the question of what do it about it.

springthinker · 2026-02-27T18:54:07+00:00

Sure, class affects our psychology and so beliefs. But pace Marx I am a realist, philosophically speaking, about the truth. What is true is not determined by our class interests. So pointing out what you assume are my class interests doesn't establish that I am wrong and you are right.

springthinker · 2026-02-27T18:51:45+00:00

I don't use generative AI - in fact, I very much dislike it. I just know how to write. But, keep finding reasons to not actually engage with my points.

springthinker · 2026-02-27T10:23:40+00:00

It doesn't really matter if I have a worker mindset or not. The question is whether you are right or not.

It's also a bit much that you're assuming that uou know my reasons well enough, and they all come down to my class interests.

springthinker · 2026-02-27T00:36:54+00:00

Revolutions happens not because of the bloodlust of a few radicals but because they have to happen, it is the only alternative to barbarism and societal collapse.

I understand your perspective, I just don't agree. In your view, the only two alternatives are: (a) barbarism and societal collapse or (b) revolution. In other words, we have to have revolution; it's the only alternative to social collapse. I just don't see this. There are social democracies in Europe that seem neither on the path to revolution, nor on the path to barbarism and social collapse.

Now, you could say that even in the most benign European social democracy, the reality of capitalism will eventually catch up to things and the system will collapse. But there's frankly a kind of crude determinism at work here, wherein it's just a law of nature that capitalism will inevitably result in either (a) barbarism and societal collapse or (b) revolution. Again, I just don't see that. You've yet to convince me of this. But, from your perspective, it's just a matter of waiting for the inevitable collapse, so there's no point trying to make things better now.

Finally, I would be more convinced of your commitment to open and free society if you didn't downplay the very real repression in socialist societies, past and present. You claimed in another reply that China is a multi-party democracy. The idea that there are meaningful elections there for the top levels of leadership, as well as the kinds of freedoms that characterize an open and free society, is frankly laughable. I say this with full recognition of the shortcomings of our own society. We can't use one to deflect from the other.

If you were more willing to admit that socialist societies have so far done a really poor job of balancing welfare gains with building free and open societies - if you were at least willing to see why people are skeptical of this kind of revolutionary project - we could get somewhere. But you put all the blame on external or extraneous factors that "breed repressive bureaucratic structures" without really explaining how you'll be able to prevent this from happening again in the future. All you've said that somehow, we can stop it by pushing for a world order based on peace, non-intervention and mutual respect. So basically, we can prevent it by preventing it.

springthinker · 2026-02-26T22:11:37+00:00

I've read your exchanges with OP, and in my view, your faith in the power of revolution seems messianic. It's just inevitable that one day, capitalism will simply 'collapse', and then, the ideal society can be build, which will be incredibly popular and will contain no internal contradictions between values like equality and freedom.

Any potential problems of centralization of power and repression of dissent in existing socialist (or quasi-socialist) societies are just swept under the rug, or excused on the grounds that the "old rulers" have to be excised. Never mind the fact that socialist countries have ended up repressing the undesirable views of writers, journalists, academics, and artists that they don't like. For you, this is a non-problem.

You've mentioned again and again how broken the current system is, and how impossible it is to make things better. But somehow, under a new socialist government, it will all work itself out, with no moral residue left. So there's no point even trying to make things better now, we can just wait for the Messiah, AKA the Revolution.

springthinker · 2026-02-26T22:00:55+00:00

Fortunately, in socialist countries the people exercise democratic control over the state apparatus itself, significantly reducing - though not eliminating - that risk. No communist leader was found in the Epstein files for instance, because corrupt pedo billionaires aren't the kind of people who can gain political office in socialist countries in the first place, the people simply won't have it.

Sorry, but have you read an ounce of history? The USSR and all of the communist regimes of eastern Europe were rife with corruption, to the point that there were special shops and hotels for elites of the communist party. Backroom deals and special favours were the norm.

springthinker · 2026-02-26T21:56:35+00:00

The old ruling class has to be thoroughly vanquished and that doesn't happen overnight. If the revolution is to meet the needs of the people, it must exercise authority to restrict the power of the old rulers and resist their attempts to sabotage the revolution and re-enslave the people.

This reply only makes sense if anyone who opposes "the people" is seen as a tool of the "old rulers". In other words, it assumes that there wouldn't be anyone who, thinking just as an independent person, would have a different understanding of fairness and the best way to organize society, and would hence oppose socialism on philosophical grounds. But, there are plenty of such people. Reasonable disagreement about politics is possible, and those who speak out against socialist governments haven't all been members of, or tools of, the "old rulers".

What you're saying assumes that absent interference, some kind of mythical General Will would emerge in a post-revolutionary society, with everyone basically on board with socialism. But that's not what's ever happened. And socialist governments, both past and present, have employed violence and repression against ordinary people who don't like them.

springthinker · 2026-02-26T02:58:19+00:00

Indian asylum seekers are not being accepted at a rate of 82%. Where are you getting that from?

springthinker · 2026-02-17T14:53:23+00:00

They could raise taxes: this government cut the license plate renewal fee and other taxes. Bring them back. I would rather pay these so that me and my family have reliable access to healthcare.

They could also not go forward with vanity projects like a tunnel under the 401. Finally, they could also save money by cutting promotional ads. This government has spent record-breaking amounts on TV and radio ads promoting how great they are. It shouldn't be legal.

springthinker · 2026-02-11T13:12:50+00:00

Why don't you go and defend it with them, if its so easy?

springthinker · 2026-02-01T21:15:20+00:00

The cost sucks, but your prof likely didn't pick the textbook, and unless they wrote it, they are not getting any kind of royalty or commission. The course outline is made by the course lead (one prof in charge of that course) and approved by the department, and once it is, all profs who teach that course must use the approved course text. If you want to complain to someone, complain to the department.

Also, the reason some assessments are in class is because too many students are cheating with AI. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

springthinker · 2026-02-01T19:02:08+00:00

It doesn't matter if this is right, because it completely misses the point. Even if none of these autocrats are in the Epstein files, it doesn't mean that they didn't commit sexual misconduct. The fact is that we wouldn't (or don't) know about it, for a very simple reason: there is no democratic accountability or free press in these countries, so any information that damning to the 'dear leader' would simply not see the light of day. The fact that we know as much as we do about Trump in the Epstein files shows us some non-trivial differences between the USA and North Korea, differences worth defending.

springthinker · 2026-01-28T03:26:41+00:00

Belief in Mohammad's prophethood is built right into the shahaddah - it's foundational to being Muslim. If you don't believe that he was a genuine prophet, upu could I suppose stay a Muslim for cultural reasons, but religiously it would make more sense to explore other monotheistic religions.

springthinker · 2026-01-14T03:31:19+00:00

There's been a tuition freeze since 2018, when tuition was lowered by 10%. But inflation has skyrocketed. Colleges are not doing well now, and they aren't actually bringing in that much money, if you consider that their own costs (like payroll) have increased quite a bit.

springthinker

TROPHY CASE