"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.” -- Milton Friedman
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." -- H. L. Mencken
Not quite true, as I understand it. ID posits that life is too complex to have evolved by natural means, and therefore supernatural intervention is not only possible, but necessary. Also, ID proponents usually want their religious views taught in public schools. ID can be legitimately described as a new iteration of creationism. Many biologists are theists without being ID adherents, so I find your definition kinda incomplete.
Did anybody actually watch last night's debate? I was traveling. Morning reports are that T-Paw did himself no favors.
A fair point, and I was simplifying things. ID's assertion about the "too complex" aspect of things is outside science in that science labels such things as unknowns and does not provide any explanation -- it is simply a direction for research to focus upon. The ID folks, of course, view this as the aegis of a creator. Teaching ID in schools would prove interesting, however. Taught in a science class (and therefore within the framework of science) it would be discussable as a weak theory at best. Teaching it in philosophy would involve questioning science itself as an equal and competing philosophy (while an interesting argument, this is well past basic education).
"The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.” -- Milton Friedman
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." -- H. L. Mencken
Cannot stand Bachmann. Of all the promising TEA Party types to emerge in the last two years, she's the one that runs?
I watched about 20 minutes and that was all I could stand. John King made it just about unbearable.Originally Posted by Lemur
I'm still favoring T-Paw at this point. I don't think CNN appreciated the discipline all of the candidates showed in keeping the focus on the president and his record, and was looking to stir up some drama. Good for T-Paw in not taking the bait, despite the best attempts of that dolt of a moderator.
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Ja Mata, Tosa.
The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail; its roof may shake; the wind may blow through it; the storm may enter; the rain may enter; but the King of England cannot enter – all his force dares not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement! - William Pitt the Elder
"If given the choice to be the shepherd or the sheep... be the wolf"
-Josh Homme
"That's the difference between me and the rest of the world! Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!"
- Calvin
He is an opportunist for his ideology. I need to find the original source where I got this but I recall reading a moment when his second or third wife (how many has he had?) asked him how he could continue to cheat and yet hold family values up as something sacrilege. He replied something along the lines of how the idea is bigger than him and it doesn't matter if he breaks it as long as he manages to get America to follow it.
As if she had been reading this thread, Michelle Bachmann declares that public schools should teach Intelligent Design. While this may play well with the GOP base, I can't see this sort of position going down well in the general election. So perhaps a good tactical move, but a fatal strategy. Thoughts?
"If given the choice to be the shepherd or the sheep... be the wolf"
-Josh Homme
"That's the difference between me and the rest of the world! Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!"
- Calvin
intelligent design is not creationism. every single person of religion believes in intelligent design.
Not even slightly true, even by your own formulation. Some religious people believe in creationism, which you just declared to be completely separate and distinct from ID. Furthermore, I know many religious people who don't subscribe to the tenets of ID. Furthermore, ID is generally accepted to be the next iteration of creationism, coming into being after creationism was defeated in the courts re: schools. So, to be honest, you packed a world of falsehoods and misleading ideas into two short sentences. I'm kinda impressed.
wait isn't intelligent design just the belief that God created the earth. And that like evolution and other scientific truths are very much true but that God was sort of the big spark behind it all and had a grand plan?
If that is what it is I find it hard for any person with religious convictions in the belief of a supreme being to not subscribe to it?
There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford
My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.
I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation.
Okay, one quick answer and then I'm not going to talk about ID anymore, except as it relates to the thread topic. ID claims that certain organs and life forms are "irreducibly complex," meaning evolution as a mechanism could not have accounted for them. The eye is often used as an example. How did animals go from flat photosensors to liquid-filled orbs with focusing membranes and all of that? If couldn't possibly have evolved naturally. So it must have been ... wait for it ... designed.
There is no science to back this up, just faith. So as physicist Wolfgang Pauli once observed, it's not even wrong.
ID is generally seen as a continuation of creationism because it is rooted in faith, not observation or hypotheses or method or any of that socialist flim-flam.
Advocating the teaching of ID in public schools, therefore, is a pretty radical position to take, and one which I predict will not play well with the general public.
"If there is a sin against life, it consists not so much in despairing as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this one."
Albert Camus "Noces"
Yeah I misunderstood. now I know better my apologies.
An interesting piece on Huntsman.
I don't agree with every position he took as governor of Utah, but - like Pawlenty - this guy seems like an intelligent, reasonable, and competent leader with some interesting new ideas based on conservative principles, but with a forward-thinking outlook. He just officially announced a week or so ago, although you'd be forgiven for missing it in all the excitement over Bachmann.If there's a short version of Mr. Huntsman's core message, it is that America needs to start competing again, and aggressively, in the global marketplace. "We need to get back in the game," he says, citing the lapse of free-trade momentum as a primary failing of the Obama years. "If we don't do it, China will move ahead with free-trade agreements as they are in Latin America, built around procurement practices that benefit Chinese companies."
In step with the other candidates, Mr. Huntsman wants to downgrade our military commitment in Afghanistan, but here, too, the argument is linked to regaining the U.S.'s competitive edge:
"Now we have one out of every six defense department dollars going to Afghanistan. We've achieved much of what we set out to do. We've been able to rout the Taliban from power. We've been able to disrupt to a large extent al Qaeda. We've had free elections going back to 2004. And we still have 100,000 troops on the ground. The future well-being of the United States is likely not going to be fought on the prairies of Afghanistan. It's likely to be the result of our ability or inability to compete competitively across the Pacific against the rising giants."
He adds he is "not suggesting pulling out completely" but would "leave behind a very capable fighting force that is appropriately positioned given the asymmetric threat that we face—the intelligence-gathering capability, the special forces capability, the training of Afghan forces capability, and the ability to work with friends in the region who believe as we do that those who are coming after us, we should go after very aggressively."
He is preoccupied with Asia: "I've seen the rise of Asia as a business guy, I've seen it as a diplomat. I think every day how we're going to better position ourselves to compete in the next century with the likes of China and India."
The more I've read about her, the more I dislike. She seems like the personification of the angry, reactionary, bible-thumping, anti-intellectual arch-Conservative straw man the Left holds up to tear down. And yet, she's creating the most buzz among the grassroots, surging to within two points of Romney in the latest Iowa poll.
Could it be that I've unknowingly strayed from the Conservative base over these last few years? Every candidate that seems to have the makings of a strong challenger to Obama and a quality president seems to be trapped in the single digits or not even registering in polls (Johnson). Meanwhile, the focus seems to be shifting from one poor quality candidate to another, Palin->Gingrich->Cain->Bachmann. The question is: is this a case of the JournoList types trying to pick the best candidate for Obama to face while most conservatives aren't paying attention or is this a genuine reflection of the movement today? We'll see, I guess.
Huntsman seems alot like McCain 2.0 to me. Other than his "let's all hug" announcement speech, what does he offer that others haven't been doing better already?
Also "Palin->Gingrich->Cain->Bachmann"? Gingrich's run never had any enthusiasm in polling.
"Don't believe everything you read online."
-Abraham Lincoln
Holey moley, Panzer has done it! Written a post I entirely agree with!* You must be straying from the base!
Surely this is a contradiction in terms? If she's getting the most buzz, she can't be a strawman.
Regarding Huntsman, it's important to remember that the GOP leadership take it in turns. Huntsman is busy getting the recognition for 2016.
*And yes, I know you've written posts I agree with before, but I like to savour the moment.
For anyone curious about Bachmann, Matt Tabibi did a serious hit piece on her in RS. Harsh stuff, but well-sourced, and nobody has challenged his reporting as counter-factual. And lord knows he gives enough specifics that if he were wrong there would be lawsuits a-flying.
"If given the choice to be the shepherd or the sheep... be the wolf"
-Josh Homme
"That's the difference between me and the rest of the world! Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!"
- Calvin
I made it thru about 5 paragraphs full of unsubstantiated insults and smears then gave up. Remember, public officials have much higher standards when it comes to libel. I don't think we want to set the precedent that not responding to every scurrilous attack is an admission of its validity.
I'm not saying there's not merit in any of the shotgun blast of attacks the article levels, but I just can't take it seriously enough to look for them. Wanna give us a cliff notes version? I can't read that much venom without having at least some substance to it....
Seriously?Originally Posted by Rolling Stone
Last edited by Xiahou; 06-27-2011 at 20:58.
"Don't believe everything you read online."
-Abraham Lincoln
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"Why do you hate the extremely limited Spartan version of freedom?" - Lemur
We are all aware that the senses can be deceived, the eyes fooled. But how can we be sure our senses are not being deceived at any particular time, or even all the time? Might I just be a brain in a tank somewhere, tricked all my life into believing in the events of this world by some insane computer? And does my life gain or lose meaning based on my reaction to such solipsism?
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Not quite the same article I read. It is scathing, but it does substantiate its actual criticisms of Bachmann the main one is that she appears to be a compulsory liar. What I found particularly striking, though is this piece. It's not so much a commentary on Bachmann per se, but rather about why she gets people to vote for her:
And that might actually have some truth to it.Emboldened by the lack of consequences for her early freakouts, Bachmann's self-mythologizing became more and more overt. In October 2006, she stepped before a packed house at the Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, and told her life story. All of history's great madmen have had that one gorgeous moment where the cackling hairy hunchback that has been gestating within for years finally comes out and shows itself, strutting up and down the catwalk for the world to see. This was Michele's catwalk moment, a lengthy autobiographical speech in which she claimed "callings" from God had pushed her to every major decision in her life — from studying tax law to running for Congress. She even told the congregation that she and hubby Marcus — who by then had opened a Christian counseling center — had been united not by love but by a unique series of divine visions experienced by three people simultaneously.
Bachmann claimed that back in her college days, she was up one night praying with a female friend of hers when "the Lord gave each one of us the same, exact vision... It was a picture of me, marrying this man, in the valley where his parents have a farm in western Wisconsin." Meanwhile, miles away, Marcus "was repairing a fence on the farm where he worked, and the Lord showed him in a vision that he was supposed to marry me." According to Bachmann, Marcus initially complained to God that he wanted to see the world first, and only later relented.
Snickering readers in New York or Los Angeles might be tempted by all of this to conclude that Bachmann is uniquely crazy. But in fact, such tales by Bachmann work precisely because there are a great many people in America just like Bachmann, people who believe that God tells them what condiments to put on their hamburgers, who can't tell the difference between Soviet Communism and a Stafford loan, but can certainly tell the difference between being mocked and being taken seriously. When you laugh at Michele Bachmann for going on MSNBC and blurting out that the moon is made of red communist cheese, these people don't learn that she is wrong. What they learn is that you're a , that they hate you more than ever, and that they're even more determined now to support anyone who promises not to laugh at their own visions and fantasies.
(...)
All of those people out there aren't voting for Michele Bachmann. They're voting against us. And to them, it turns out, we suck enough to make anyone a contender.
Last edited by Tellos Athenaios; 06-28-2011 at 00:31.
- Tellos Athenaios
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“ὁ δ᾽ ἠλίθιος ὣσπερ πρόβατον βῆ βῆ λέγων βαδίζει” – Kratinos in Dionysalexandros.
There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford
My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.
I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation.
Which others?
As governors run primarily on their states, I would argue that Utah's model is far better than Romney's Massachusetts and even Pawlenty's Minnesota or Johnson's New Mexico. Based in part on specific policies Huntsman enacted, Utah weathered the recession far better than those other states and the nation at large, and he would be able to effectively contrast his record in Utah with Obama's handling of the national economy.
Huntsman also brings foreign policy credentials to the table that none of the other candidates can match. He has literally been focused on China for most of his life, the nation that just happens to be our greatest competitor. I mean, the man can speak mandarin. Such a resume would prove invaluable in the coming years as we try and untangle the unsustainable trade relationship we have with that country.
All that being said, just like with Pawlenty, I haven't thrown my support behind Huntsman or any of the candidates yet. My frustration comes from the base's seeming obsession with crappy, second-tier candidates when there are so many quality governors out there who didn't mandate universal healthcare.
I mean, what do Palin, Cain, or Bachmann have to offer compared to these other guys? Ideological purity, or the illusion of it? (Bachmann isn't even all that much of a small government conservative if you examine her record). That's great in congress, but a president has to have broader appeal. That doesn't mean we (the Right) have to lay aside our core principles to get someone elected, but we also shouldn't write off quality candidates because they have adopted some moderate positions that have little to do with their ability to competently manage a government according to conservative principles.
By doing that, we are going to end up with a choice between a truly principle-less candidate and a bat shit crazy one.
I thought he enjoyed high numbers before his comments on Ryan's Medicare plan. Wasn't he the 'ideas guy' of the Republican party?Also "Palin->Gingrich->Cain->Bachmann"? Gingrich's run never had any enthusiasm in polling.
Last edited by PanzerJaeger; 06-28-2011 at 06:30.
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