xkcd

Tyndmyr

That makes sense. I *thought* that was the case, but I wasn't sure it was quite that strict. In general, as an atheist, it's nice. The door knocking is a bit tedious, sometimes.

Tyndmyr

Basically an act has causes and effects (for lack of better terminology), and those causes have causes and those effects have effects. And a lot of what j_s has been proposing seems to rely on following the chains out until their ultimate conclusion or at least more than ten steps out. Additionally...

Tyndmyr

Judaism is a good deal less evangelical than Christianity, sure. I've literally never had them knock on my door or give me a tract. I actually think that's probably one of the main conflicts. It's a very different approach. But seeking to convert outsiders is fairly common for religion in general. t...

Tyndmyr

Basically, it might have some moral repercussions, but quite small ones, and going to great lengths to imagine possible effects means a possibility for error so high that the measurement is meaningless? Yeah, I can get behind that. If I have coffee or not, nobody is likely to notice any positive or ...

Tyndmyr

That's why I started with asking about Mormons. They call themselves Christian, but they're hundreds if not thousands of years later than other groups that call themselves Christians, and a lot of those other groups say they're not real Christians. So... are they? Eh. I leave it to the religions to...

Tyndmyr

It is raining and miserable here today...Facebook feed is full of "go vote" exhortations. There were a few that said "I didn't get around to registering in time, but you should go vote", which seems...odd. But hey, to each their own, I suppose. Predictit odds are interesting. Yes...

Tyndmyr

Stupid question. Why are Republicans seeming to make a bigger stink over this than Democrats? Mostly, Democrats are outraged about other stuff. There's only so much media bandwidth, etc for expressing disagreement, and Democrats are heavily engaged in domestic partisanship at present. After all, it...

Tyndmyr

You weren't this much of a downer when antifa was punching Nazis. * *OT but it's ironic that even though everyone was up in arms about the morality of punching Nazis, antifa was quite out gunned and poorly combat trained compared to Nazis. Probably not so OT. Cults and their methods may have applic...

Tyndmyr

CorruptUser wrote:Uh, no, it's not a "no true Scotsman" because they aren't Jewish, any more than Idi Amin was Scottish royalty.

I mean, they're ethnically Jewish(at least largely), they celebrate passover, do the whole circumcision thing, and they do church on Saturday.

They're at least kind of Jewish.

Tyndmyr

When more than one review for a "business" starts with "This is seriously NOT a cult!!", you should probably avoid that place.

Good advice. Also, applies to MLMs, which are sort of a cousin to the money making cult model.

Tyndmyr

end all their prayers extolling Christ. Just a side note but while this would be extremely unusual for a Muslim prayer, would that even be a major issue for them? They believe he was a great prophet. It's...a context thing. In context, praising Christ for being God is different than praising him fo...

Tyndmyr

Maine probably gets a bunch. The people that end up as state legislators were the same people you would see behind the grocery store checkout counter, which is pretty great in the "politicians in touch with the common man" sense, but I am slightly elitist in the sense that I'd prefer a pr...

Tyndmyr

I mean, some of my state legislature is batshit crazy too, but they at least usually stop short of openly advocating genocide. Idle thought...I wonder if anyone's ever compiled a list of the craziest state politicians across the US. The bar for them seems substantially lower than national level sort...

Tyndmyr

... If the rest of the country refuses to “yield” to these terms, the document advocates a final solution: “kill all males.” If anyone shoots him, try to get me on the jury so I can find them not guilty on the grounds they were acting in self-defence. Technically, a female defendant would probably ...

Tyndmyr

Imagine there was a movement to help Native Americans reconnect to their ancestral traditions, beliefs and culture. You would probably support. Now imagine that you learned that this movement was claiming that Native Americans were monotheists whose traditions prophesies that the son of the Creator...

Tyndmyr

I don't get why there's so much push to banish all cash transactions. It seems to me that if you see a drug dealer carrying a briefcase full of cash that would be a great help in securing a conviction. And following a physical briefcase seems easier than tracking tax evasion through 10 swiss accoun...

Tyndmyr

One could claim that moral obligation always exists, either to do or to not do {action}, just like the real numbers on a number line, and then we simply try to ascribe a value to the intensity of the obligation (allowing negative numbers for obligations to not do), and zero for the rare cases where...

Tyndmyr

That's fair. It's a more favorable election, but every seat now definitely helps their odds significantly. However, a blue congress now, and a decent shot at a blue senate/president in two years is workable from a Democratic perspective. Even if they only end up with 49 seats or something, it leaves...

Tyndmyr

Also, Stark frigging loves messing with people.

Tyndmyr

But I'll entertain the hypothetical, ridiculous as it is. Not so hypothetical at all. Person becomes a doctor, develops some technique he licenses for a bazillion simolians, kicks back and sips margaritas for the rest of his days. She may enjoy doctoring, but that's a lot of responsibility and stre...

Tyndmyr

What if a doctor went off and did literally nothing? They sat in a room and twirled their thumbs while living off wealth they had inherited. They did not find that doing research was unpleasant and did not find twirling their thumbs particularly enjoyable. The idea that someone would go through the...

Tyndmyr

This is looking a ways out, but Democrats would seem to have a bigger potential comeback in 2020. Yeah, the senate map isn't great for now, but in 2020, there's a lot more possibility for Democratic gains. Toss in a fairly significant Democratic sentiment that they're tired of Trump, which ought to ...

Tyndmyr

In other news, Democrats won't win the House unless there's a polling error. Accidentally typed Senate, I presume. I was quite surprised until I read further. Yeah, Senate's basically in the bag for Republicans. Would need something odd to happen. House odds still ought to be pretty good for Democr...

Tyndmyr

Wait, I knew a Messianic Jew in college. Are they bad people? He at least had the decency not to convert me. No more or less so than anyone else. Or at least, anyone else Christian. It's not surprising that Pence picked such a person, he's definitely in the religious faction. However, the earlier c...

Tyndmyr

The analogy they appear to be reaching for is not that of diplomats, but of an invading army, which is also not subject to our laws despite being here(not that the US has invading armies much, but in principle, yknow?) It is something of a stretch in any legal sense, but it gives you an idea of the ...

Tyndmyr

Look at how long we've stuck with the interpretation that the 2nd amendment guarantees the right for ordinary citizens to keep and bear arms; and yet there are plenty of people who still argue to this day that it was really meant to apply only to militias, and who would gladly change the common int...

Tyndmyr

The idea that the lynchpin of that requirement is the "legal" seems like a bit of a stretch? An assumption, at any rate. It is generally the intent of immigrants, legal or otherwise, to reside here. Same for folks on a visa or what not. And "since 1898" is a pretty long time from...

Tyndmyr

The 14th amendment is quite clear. These people are citizens. I personally agree with you; but there are plenty of legal scholars who disagree, and no court has ever made a definitive interpretation. The courts could go either way; and if they decide down political lines, it's quite possible they s...

Tyndmyr

to turn this argument around, why is this phrase even in the amendment text? are there people inside the US which aren't subject to it's jurisdiction? and if so, how are they currently regarded under this law? Diplomatic immunity is a category outside of this, I think. I think that arguing over the...

Tyndmyr

I don't need to ascribe them wisdom, I just need to understand what it is they want. For politicians, it's largely popularity with their base. Exactly how true this is varies somewhat, but for someone like Trump, there are not a ton of additional morals limiting that. So, Trump's pretty straightforw...

Tyndmyr

They can do that regardless of if they embrace retroactive changes, though. Even simply changing it going forward, while obviously going to bring on a court battle, would be a huge win for anti-immigration sorts. Why would they take on a significant PR liability when they can get the popularity bene...

Tyndmyr

It's a different thing if folks were accepted as citizens, and this was revoked. Closer to home. Whereas if they avoid going retroactive, they can still celebrate a big win. anyway being a person of color in America is literally just an experience of constant daily gaslighting, wherein you can spec...

Tyndmyr

Largely criminal veterans who were never citizens. It's a different thing if folks were accepted as citizens, and this was revoked. Closer to home. There's enough military members that by virtue of odds, one will be able to get extremely sympathetic examples. This doesn't serve the interests of repu...

Tyndmyr

If they intend to not make uncomfortable examples, but also to discriminate against a specific race, explicit policies would be necessary. Mere bias would not suffice to avoid everyone who could make a bad PR example. Catching some white people in the racist net wouldn't be bad PR examples, it'd be...

Tyndmyr

Selective enforcement is a thing, but, say, stopping and frisking with a bias is easier to pull off without paperwork, laws, etc than assigning citizenship. The latter affects a wide range of topics. If they intend to not make uncomfortable examples, but also to discriminate against a specific race,...

Tyndmyr

As for military brats, the US already has Jus Sanguini as well as Soli. One need not be a citizen to be in the US military. So, if one went retroactively, you'd certainly hit non citizens who served honorably, and had a kid with another non citizen, and said kid is likely also military, because of ...

Tyndmyr

Reinterpreting the 14th is in the realm of possibility; but making it retroactive is quite simply not. why on earth not? our government has already recently proved they are 100% okay with passing completely bullshit retroactively applying laws so long as they target reviled groups, i don't see how ...

Tyndmyr

Any ethical framework can answer the question, and in some cases, you may get different answers. However, I think it's highly likely that most will say "no, you're not obliged to always stay in the same career". People need to eat and people also need cancer cured. Choosing to address one ...

Tyndmyr

Can you imagine the shit show? How many current citizens can prove they are not descendants of undocumented immigrants? Especially considering the records only go back so far... But besides that I don't see how SCOTUS could "reinterpret" the 14th amendment to deny Jus Soli. I know they ha...

Tyndmyr

Legally speaking, the SC has never ruled on whether or not the child of illegal immigrants is automatically a citizen. It's been de facto Jus Soli, but if you look at the world, Jus Soli is extremely rare outside the US Sure. But on the flip side, we've done it that way for a while, and it would be...

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