fauxlaw's avatar

fauxlaw

A member since

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Total posts: 4,363

Posted in:
Banning hate speech causes it to spread
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@sadolite
Here's my response which pays little attention to "hate speech:" The 1A offers the benefit of free speech. It's unwritten follow-on is that we have the right to be offended, but that does not allow the response of official censure. "Official" does not include the private  ownership and moderation of public-access sites, which may impose whatever rules they deem necessary. Bottom line; there is a consequence to bitching at each other rather than trying to get along inspite of diifereences of opinion. 
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Shoofly fails. Again.
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@Swagnarok
Since I lived in all three presidencies I cited, and now the fourth, and observed results [on the three - thus my confidence in the fourth], my personal testimony is one source. My most clear evidence: I started buying gold at my father's suggestion in the late 70s when it was $400/oz, and silver at $12/oz.
Beyond that, y'all can read the same history I do. I didn't have anyone give me citations; I found them myself. Not the NYT, WSJ, Cartoon News Network, or MessNBC. My father also taught me I'm better off doing my own research rather than be led by the nose; even by him. My father was a good adviser. I pass it along.
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Shoofly fails. Again.
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@ultramaximus2
The problem [not investigated by A.I., but rather, by my own analysis]

A.I. begins "artificial" and that, alone, ought to educate an educated brain, which is not artificial. Clear?

In all three presidential cases to which my #1 referred, resulted in increased tax revenue; the only claim made in my #1. A.I. manages only to obfuscate with a wall of text that ultimately admits to that conclusion. No one promised a clock by which to gage the the results of lowering taxes, and virtually any economist worth more than Biden's sandbox, will agree: do not expect immediate results. That's all I'm saying.  

6 lines of text, including this conclusion. A.I.: you're a bloody long tongue of no consequence. Sing to the choir of un-thinkers who believe your every word.
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Happy Fourth, y'all.
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@Debunker
I fly two flags, and will do the other to celebrate Bastille Day on 7/14. Same colors, coincidentally.
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Happy Fourth, y'all.
Old Glory flies at 7,500 feet atop my forest home. All is well.
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Posted in:
Banning hate speech causes it to spread
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@Mall
I self-banned, boyo, and the reasons are mine. Get it? leave it alone.
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Strawman debates and forum topics
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@Barney
Ah, but what constitutes "person," and is that by legal, medical, genetic, or generational definition? And what would A.I. say about it?

not so /satire 
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Trump’s Approval Rating Falls To New Low
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@Debunker
Yeah, but anger over that is just an excuse to be angry for no purpose. There are plenty of other ways to acquire personal wealth as well as public wealth [i.e. reducing the federal deficit], but there are many who haven't a clue how to achieve either one. And until government can figure out how to clean n its own house, even though I've figured out a long time ago following my father's advice to acquire sufficient for beyond my needs and my children in their generation, I see no purpose to volunteer any more than my tax liability to the government, since they still are more adept at wasting it.
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Trump’s Approval Rating Falls To New Low
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@FLRW
What would Jesus do?
Wrong question. We know what Jesus would do. The real question is, facing that person in the mirror, asking, "What are you going to do about it?" As for Trump,  we do not and should not think we can answer for him, because none of us bear his name, but there sure are a lot of people who want to use his name as if they have lost there own.  That's just retarded.
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Banning hate speech causes it to spread
This nonsense is precisely why I maintain that adhering to the principles of the Sermon on the Mount [Matthew 5 - 7, inclusive] would solve every single social ill that plagues society today. Every one. It necessitates our getting along in sprite of differences, but actually encourages celebrating rather than denigrating our differences.
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Leo Frank was guilty of murder.
This was over a century ago. Relevance?
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MEEP: New moderators, website redesign, new features, and more! [VOTING]
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@David
Prop 1:1 It would help if the current mood team was identified. By the help center, that page has not been updated for 1 year. Is it current? Are you talking adding to the number of Mods, or making replacements for the current number of Mods? MY thunking is that the number does not need to be replaced.

Prop 1:2  In view of 1:1, if we're not adding to the number of Mods, I think the current set [if anot needing or wanting to be replaced, are fine as listed.

Prop 2: No

Prop 3: Yes, and the definition of "slur" ought to be a wide scope, because, according to the Human Genome Project, with agreement by Scientific American, concluded in 2003 [therefore, a generation ago] there is no such thing as race; i.e.,  there is no biological basis for race. Therefore, avoiding criticism of one another that merely "smells" bad is reason enough for ban, even if offered in jest. Someone must make a strand, an I do.

Prop 4:
A. Opinions: ism't that what Forum is now? Why muddy the water?
B. Polls: Useless unless  a qualified statistical format is used, this is useless because a poll without statistical relevance is entirely jaded by bias, and I am a professionally educated statistical guru.
C. Groups / Clubs: Is this trying to be a debate site or a social club? Trying to be all things ends up being nothing.
D. Articles: Some members complain about walls of text ifs Forum now, but I don't have a problem with it.
E. Podcasts: No problem
F. Mafia ELO system: I know it's popular, but I don't engage it. 
G. Add images / videos: Yes, I wish we had that now.
H. Forum signatures: Not sure what that means.

My ranked preferences:
1. Add images/videos
2. Articles
3. Podcast
The rest I ignore.







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Proposal to bring back trials
Arguably, a Modetator's job is particularly under-rated, and poorly regarded. I respect those one and all who agree to serve in that function. The best way to destroy what respect they have is by second questioning bans. I don't think any one of them enjoy that function, yet children will be petulant, and it's nonsense to have to control behavior with adults, but some of them have to have wings clipped simply because of bad behavior. Agree to disagree.
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Trump’s Approval Rating Falls To New Low
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@FLRW
But the woke population will not need to be remembered because woke is dead. 
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Trump’s Approval Rating Falls To New Low
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@FLRW
 Yahoo/YouGov poll.
A survey of 1,597 U.S. adults,
As usual, the basics of statistical modeling are not followed in this poll
A few rules;
There is an accurate formula for determining appropriate sample size for a given population such as the total number of US adults [age 18 and above]. That number is about 260M [a few more, but that will suffice.  The target for that y0u poll is a minimum of 2,401 respondents. This poll was about 1,600. Nope, not sufficient.
There is a maximum. allowable ± percentage of margin of error [moe], which is, for best accuracy ±2%, or a total 4% swing. This poll is over twice that Moe.
There are a maximum number of question to pose, before respondants become bored with the poll and will answer anything just to be done with it.  That is 10 questions, max.

There are other rules, as well, mostly ignored, as well, but if you can't abide by these three, you've shot the load and it amounts to premature efactulation. Virtually all political polling agencies ignore these rules. Result: an inaccurate, and, therefore, useless poll, which virtually all political polls are.

By the way, I am a professionally certified six sigma black belt, retired, meaning I am qualified in statistical modeling, so the forgoing is not just random bullshyte opinion.
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Trump Dumps The Ukraine
A program designed to rezone vast swaths of underutilized federal land for high-end development contracts. Trump, ever the real estate mogul, supposedly aimed to "unlock America's true potential" by turning national parks, protected reserves, and military training grounds into luxury resorts, 
Do you even realize how oxymoronic  those two sentences are to one another?  How is it that "vast swaths of underutilized federal land" suddenly become "national parks, protected reserves, and military training grounds" simply because hatred of Trump yields the wokeness that its incredibly, simply, moronic, let alone oxified [as in bullshyte]?
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When is it acceptable to let a child die?
$50 sneakers are "snazzy?" I don't think so. 
Of course, 86 the shoes; they're worthless compared to saving a child's life. If anyone disagrees, I just hope it isn't my kid, when that respondent doesn't. He may find my respect for his life just went into the trash.
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Posted in:
Trump Dumps The Ukraine
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@Debunker
Moreover, linking this arms shipment issue to Trump’s alleged desire for a “Moscow Trump Tower” conflates unrelated controversies and promotes conspiracy thinking without any verified evidence. 
part of the "wit5=hout... verified evidence " is the fact that there's been no recent mention by anyone about a renewed interest on Trump's part for a Moscow Trump Tower since mention of it, not by Trump, last April, and it was not TRump who brought it up. It's now more chasing rabbits by the hate-Trump media.
When Trump says he's interested, I'll start believing recent suggestions. Until then, it's flapping lips with no consequential effect by media sources that do not deserve the sourcing.
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Trump Dumps The Ukraine
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@FLRW
I do not own a floor in a tower; I own a house on [no mortgage] 10 acres in the Rockies at 7,500 feet elevation in a forest, and a 40-ft yacht moored in a harbor in Newport Beach.
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Trump Dumps The Ukraine
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@FLRW
Surprised you do not have Trump somehow articulated in your username, so enamored are you with his mention, as if he occupies a deep region of the brain, rent-free.Just let go.
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My knee surgery
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@sadolite
@ILikePie5
Thanks, guys. Appreciate y'all. I'll do fine.
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Shoofly fails. Again.
Three different presidents in two parties proposed across-the-board tax cuts and in all three cases, tax revenue increased substantially. Therefore, plenty of precedent suggests Trump, being the last of the three presidents in a former administration, will see the same accomplishment with far more evidence than a tired CBO theory, which has been thrice proven wrong. Broken record against gold records. Get it, yet? I have personal memory of Kennedy's accomplishment, let alone Reagan and Trump. Many of you, I'll wager, have no memory of Reagan and believe Shoofly. That's on you. Remember Shoofly also predicted the demise of the Supreme Court on the steps of that building as if he owned the place. Wrong, again. Twice more. How manat fails are going to allow to Shoofly before you admit he's as worthless as a pregnant man..
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Should wives obey their husbands?
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@Umbrellacorp
If you're going to try to quote me, then. quote me; don't apply your own version of what I said  in generalities and  claim I said it. I said: 

 it still feels like I'm scratching the biblical, and other scriptures' surface
I am scratching; i.e., I am making progress, not claiming it is not possible to understand, and since that progress, as later said, is in 4 languages of complete reading, you must surmise I have at least the intelligence of dedication to the task, as well as literacy in a number of languages. Do you really think [which is entirely on you, btw] that amounts to lack of understanding?  You can do better than that.
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Should wives obey their husbands?
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@Umbrellacorp
While I acknowledge the potential of personal misunderstanding, I'll offer the suggestion that a total read is likely to avail one's self of understanding more than merely citing random verses, at best. I note you have not said whether you have read the Bible, cover-to-cover. That generally marks observational consequences, such as that ignorance is only self-inflicted bliss. I have done so in four languages, by the by, so, let's not parse the volume's "understanding" too critically.
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Some interesting statistical observations of the members of this site
I made an error of a claim in current debate in which I am engaged. The error had noting to do with the debate subject itself, just am observation of a factor of the site: country of origin. Here is my observations. recorded in the debate comments. I taught they might be interesting to you as an observation of the memebershhp:

"Correction [not critical:] I realize that I made a minor error in the introductory paragraph of my R1, saying, "As this site is headquartered in the U.S...." The fact is, the site makes no indication of residence, so I'll offer a correction:

"I made a survey of the membership of four random pages of members who engage in debate, but not a page on which I am [a total of 200 members' sample size, a statistical qualification sample, considering just the membership who engage debate, 50 members per page] and find that 52%, a majority, indicate the U.S. as country of residence, and the claim of jurisdiction still holds. This is immaterial to the debate subject; but since the erroneous claim needed correction, I have done so. This also demonstrates the site draws internationally to a high degree, though less than a majority. That can only be good for variety of opinion. 

"An additional coincidence noted, by the same data collection noted above, a majority of members who are currently under a ban, regardless of duration, also do not identify a country of origin, choosing to remain "unknown." Correlation? I offer no opinion, just the casual observation."
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Should wives obey their husbands?
The fallacy of this string is the assumption that obedience is one-sided. Sure, Genesis says God said that Eve should obey Adam, but most people assume that's the end of the story. Nope. That's limited reading. How many times have I suggested that reading the Bible isn't an afternoon's casual time in the lounge chair, soaking up the sun? It's cover-to-cover, and doing that multiple times before it finally begins to sink in. Get it? All scripture  is serious advice that needs serious attention to its detail, and the story does not end with the first chapters of Genesis.
I've been reading since I was a pre-adolescent, and it still feels like I'm scratching the biblical, and other scriptures' surface. Marriage obedience goes both ways, and our marriage, me to my bide,  [one of the enduring qualities I've committed to maintain is that this is how I refer to the beautiful lady who agreed to share my journey with me, and I with her] has endured 53 years of mostly me getting my head round that commitment.  If you think that is easy, because that endurance is longer than most of you have been alive... well, you're just going to have to live it out to fully understand. No one said marriage was easy, just worth it.
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I challenge Mikal to a debate...
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@Mikal
By not assuming typical definitions, you should assure the debate does not devolve into semantics. There's no downside to nailing down definitions when they are credible sources [a dictionary]
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My knee surgery
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@Swagnarok
@zedvictor4
@Mharman
@Sidewalker
@Ultracrepidarian
Thank you all for your well wishes. Be well, my friends.
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I challenge Mikal to a debate...
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@Mikal
@AdaptableRatman
Somebody ought to define "salvation," because that has definitive differences in meaning across Christendom, not to mention freedom and servitude. All should be defined and agreed upon prior the perofress from challenge to debate so you're both on the same page.
otherwise, you'll argue about the differences during the entire debate and lose sight of the relative BoPs. I will vote on the basis of those definitions.
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High sugar diet - most dangerous diet?
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@LucyStarfire
Simple answer : eat dark chocolate, the more bitter, the better. 80% cacao or above; virtually no sugar, but good health chocolate. Not milk choc, that has sugar, too.
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Ranking Dart members based on how full of shit they are.
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@AdaptableRatman
@LucyStarfire
...Fauxlaw who openly says he speaks fluent French. Actually how did he score low?
I think it's the Latinate website that is the most full of shyte. As a test, I entered a block of French text.  About 3/4 of the text was rated as "unidentified" because the lotin-o-meter is expecting the text to be in English. It recognized 0 Germanic and 0 Latin, even though French is rooted in Latin, and there is absolutely no justification for the creators of the site to classify use of Latin as liars, nor German as being dumb except by their own bullshyte. Then, for an absolute riot, I entered a string of Egyptian hieroglyphs  copied from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and the result was total nonsense, as I expected.

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My knee surgery
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@Lemming
@LucyStarfire
Thanks, guys. Much appreciated. Be good while I'm away. That is, be yourselves!
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My knee surgery
FYI, I am going under the knife next Tuesday, 7/8, for R knee total replacement surgery, and will need a few days recovery/rehab. At my age, this is a bit of a risk, but it is essential surgery, not voluntary. My cardiologist says I have a 6% risk of having a coronary during surgery, which is a very low risk as far as that goes, but 6% isn't zero, so... Later, about 2 months, I'll need to repeat for my L knee. 
Have a happy 4th.
In advance, I appreciate your thoughts and prayers on my behalf. "I'll be back," as Arnold once said. "No, it's not a tumor."

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A rolled-up solar panel
Four years ago I posted  this titled post as quoted below, at a time when Kamycakes was a couple of months into her failed attempt at being a Veep, knowing even then, because I grew up in CA, in L.A. and San Francisco, in that order, and knew what a klutz she was as a DA and AG, so, the following post was only a little tongue-in-cheek. Now, failing to acquire donations for her CA failed-before-it-starts gubernatorial campaign, I wonder what you think, now? I'm choking on my own tongue, but laughing off my ares:

"One green energy proponent, Kammie Harris, thought she told a joke at Annapolis last Friday, talking to graduates in electrical engineering how they were going to produce energy with wind and solar, and even combat power by the same. Then she quipped, "do you think a marine would rather have batteries in her backpack, or a rolled-up solar panel?" Nobody laughed but Kammie.

"Nope, not just a bad joke, but a useless joke. That's the difference between actual electrical engineers and a life-long politician. The latter think they know everything, knowing, in actuality, nothing but convincing people to vote for them. Why would that marine be walking with a backpack, during the day, with a solar panel rolled-up in it? What's she going to do, take the collector out at night? Gracious, what a dummie. Kamie, not the marine. The marine would have seen through that futile exercise, but Kammie has never hauled around a solar panel in her life, day or night."

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New way to improve site: The 3 steps plan
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@AdaptableRatman
And then when they actually stay here for 3 days they realise whiteflame runs it like a wildlife sanctuary?
That entirely depends on personal perspective, and I've been keen to vote on new-member-initiated or participated debates and send them DMs to get acquainted, welcome them to the site and find virtually all do not think the site is a "wildlife sanctuary."
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The elephant in the room.
What don't  you like about debate art?
I do not like the issue I'm having being unable to enter debate arguments in the argument fields by round when all other fields, such as in Debate voting and comments and Description, and  Forum and DMs are completely accessible, and that appears to be a permanent condition with the possible selection of making a new account. I'll wit for the new site with David's ownership for that, but for which I will maintain use of my current username and  avatar for familiarity even though all the current data will be lost to start from scratch.

Discuss your experience with debate art.
With the exception of the3 above issue, I enjoy DA

Discuss your experience with debate.org if applicable.
No experience with it or any other debate site, and I do not frequent other types of social media.

Have you ever used or thought of using A.I. to argue for your position?
knowingly, I do not use AI for anything. It's artificial; a terribly unattractive moniker flor something allegedly intelligent.

How does debate art rank against other social media networks?
As said in #3,  I do not engage other social media
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Challenge to RM over best direction for the site.
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@AdaptableRatman
If God wants this place to rot, it is time for me to accept it.
Wrong posit. Do you want the site to survive? I do. I think God's opinion is his own, and as on most issues, demanding he offer his is the dead-wrong approach to him. WE have our agency, as he has his own, and his, even in most extreme situations when we are mostly misbehaving, he allows us to proceed uninterrupted by him. How many times in human history has he directly intervened? Maybe literally, nor more than a handful of times in thousands to hundreds of thousands of years since civilization began. And at that, only to stop us from self-destruction. Death is only a door to continued existence, so death is not the punishment we assign to him as being cruel.
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Challenge to RM over best direction for the site.
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@AdaptableRatman
It's the wrong kind of pride talking to demand an apology from others when we, ourselves, have not done so, first.
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Challenge to RM over best direction for the site.
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@AdaptableRatman
You are correct. I have made a nearly complete adult life-study of the world's religions [not all, I'm sure, but plenty of both East and West cultures, and find humility is a constant theme typically described as I did, that as soon as it is said of one's self, it is no longer until self can again be removed from the equation. In spite of religious differences, not necessarily only where they disagree, this is a consistent theme, telling me there is a God, and he may be known by many names, and speaks to many cultures, because humility is far from the only attitude of similarity.
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Challenge to RM over best direction for the site.
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@AdaptableRatman
I ran across a commentary, the origin of which escapes me because it was so long ago re: humility: As soon as you admit you are, you are no longer. Humility is trait that must be the observation of others; never your own. I must remind myself of that too frequently, and it is one of the most difficult things we can do. It is one of those characteristics that is proof of God.
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Challenge to RM over best direction for the site.
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@AdaptableRatman
I may be, but, that gives you license to do the same?  Take the same advice you just gave Badger: Pot. Kettle.
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Crowdfund the Fed
Let's recall that taxes are paid in dollars, not in percentage points, and that by dollars, the 1% - 5% - 10%ers already pay, in dollars, 45-50%, or more, of the total tax revenue, and they are the smallest tax group by percentage of the population. So, "tax the rich" is an unproportionate demand. The real problem is the vast numbers of people in the lowest tax bracket who mostly pay no taxes beyond what is withdrawn, or worse, no taxes at all because their income is all entitlement. Social Security, by the way, is not entitlement. Every penny of that benefit is donation to the SS Trust Fund is private donation by workers and their employers, plus interest earned on that fund. It is not public money by tax revenue, and, therefore, not a socialist program as is often accused.
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How do you debate?
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@Mall
When asked direct questions, do you tend to evade especially when the answer that you should give will refute your point or points?
I have mentioned in debate voting that direct questions to an opponent make for poor argument, I have decided to ignore direct questions from debate opponents as just that, because the question, itself, better served the one posing the question to structure. the commentary as a direct argument rather than a question. It's like being an attorney in a court of law: never ask a question, the answer to which is unknown. because you may not know how the question will be answered, and it may completely backfire. Make the bloody argument. That's the high ground because it forces the opponent to rebuttal, and if rebuttal is missed, that should be a vote in your favor by astute voters. This is true in particular when the question does not pertain to the Resolution, either for or against it.
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Challenge to RM over best direction for the site.
A challenge of an open debate in Forum is hardly a challenge to manhood, unless one feels the manhood is incapable of rising to the occasion, and that's a personal issue, not the entire membership. I would challenge the notion of accusing a challenge to one's manhood is the appropriate source of apology if there is apology to be made.
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Guns aren't about freedom—it’s about a fantasy of rebellion you’ll never have the balls to start.
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@sadolite
Scat humor? Infantile
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Guns aren't about freedom—it’s about a fantasy of rebellion you’ll never have the balls to start.
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@sadolite
Three kinds of pole in the world;
Make things happen
Watch what happens
Wonder what hapened

Makers neither watch nor wonder, and, therefore have already chosen what they'll do when given a shovel and told to dig.
They've already decided digging holes just end up being filled by somebody else, so continue with what they already planned. Let the fellow who suggested digging a hole dig it himself since he wants it so bad. Makers know there is free will, and will to make, which is an additive function, not a reduction.
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How do you debate?
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@Mall
What's your style?
Heavy on credible sourcing. I avoid google and wiki. Heavy on logic, historical accuracy, and sound philosophy. Heavy Christian ethic, but not the typical Christian.
Search and destroy ethic relative to opponent's argument.

Are you looking to learn to understand the opposing stance?
Always. How can I effectively rebut an argument I do not understand? It's a given I do not always end up understanding, thus, a higher loss rate than I'd prefer, but I'm more rankled by waging a debate that never sees a vote. Of my debate totals, I think over 11% never have a vote. That upsets me because I currently rank 13th in debate participation and 7th in voting among all debating members, and I expect the same courtesy in my debates.

Do you operate with a bias?
Always, but it may not be my own. I sometimes challenge a debate in which I take the opposing side from my personal bias.

Are you liberal , progressive, libertarian?
None of the above. There are other options. My arguments usually, with the exception of item 3, above, reveal my politick

Why aren't you non liberal?
But I am. Besides, that politick is extinct.

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Can the mods undo FishChaser's ban?
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@Sir.Lancelot
Yeah, I get that, but, I'm willing if opponents are willing. In the meantime, I plan on doing more forum than debate anyway.
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serial killers and smartness
Is a serial killer smart by avoiding capture, or just sufficiently evasive, or are they the same thing?
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Can the mods undo FishChaser's ban?
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@Sir.Lancelot
If that's the case, I'll just limp along as I am and wait for the new site, which would require a new account anyway  for all of us.
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